Wichita is no stranger to composite materials, as aviation manufacturers have readily embraced the unique aluminum alternative in recent years to design increasingly advanced aircraft.

Now, an innovative new use for composites as internal orthopedic devices may land the burgeoning industry a place of respect in a formerly unrelated sector: medicine. The current materials of choice are metals and plastics, which are limited by their dissimilar properties to bone and can cause unnecessary stress internally.

“Composites represent materials that are light and strong and that are somewhat flexible, and that’s exactly what we see in bone,” says Dr. Paul Wooley, director of the Orthopaedic Research Institute (ORI), which is owned and operated by Via Christi Regional Medical Center. “Bone is a tissue that is light and strong and allows a little bit of flexibility, so your bones are not brittle. So we right away recognized that this would be a good material to develop as a substitute.”

To explore the scientific and commercial possibilities of this new application for composites, ORI and area universities, including the National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University, have joined forces to establish the Center of Innovation in Biomaterials and Orthopaedic Research (CIBOR).

In May 2009, the Kansas Bioscience Authority awarded CIBOR a one-year, $4 million grant that is expected to extend into a five-year, $20 million grant, which will allow the research to expand into more extensive device development and, ultimately, commercialization efforts.

Because of the lengthy approval process required before mainstream distribution, CIBOR leaders are looking at their invention as a long-term project. In the meantime, though, the center has begun research on medical uses for composite materials that do not demand the intense scrutiny, such as operating tables and surgical tools. Replacing the metal normally used to make these apparatuses with composites would allow physicians to take X-rays during an operation without having to alter the surgical site, for example.

Once the industry matures, Wichita will see 2,600 new jobs and an annual economic impact of $200 million.

“This adds a fourth leg to our economy,” says Michael Good, director of business research operations at ORI. “We put a lot of eggs in the aviation manufacturing basket, and this would allow us to diversify those assets and utilize them for some other form of manufacturing along the lines of composites.”

The marriage of the medical industry to the composites industry is a natural progression in Wichita, where a well-developed composites region is already in place. Composites manufacturers here are already accustomed to working with both highly detailed specifications and a minuscule margin of error in terms of human safety.

“If you think about it, both industries make parts that your life depends on,” says John Tomblin, executive director of the NIAR at Wichita State. “The aerospace industry, they’re regulated by the FAA, and they make parts that are flight-critical to airplanes. People look at the medical industry, which is regulated by the FDA, and the situation is similar. If you look at the manufacturers that supply the aerospace industry, they are particularly suited to supply parts for the medical industry as well because they already know the quality assurance that is important in the aerospace industry, and that can quality assurance be directly applied to the medical industry.”