Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42819874›Full record

ArticleJournal of experimental orthopaedics2026

Artificial intelligence in orthopaedics should be built with surgeons, not just for them!

Felix C Oettl, Balint Zsidai, Jacob Oeding, Ting Cong, Elmar Herbst, Gergely Pánics, Philipp W Winkler, Volker Musahl, Eric Hamrin Senorski, Romain Seil and 9 more

Abstract readEditorial
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of experimental orthopaedics, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

19 authors.

Felix C OettlDepartment of Orthopedic Surgery University Hospital Balgrist Zurich Switzerland.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9721-685X
Balint ZsidaiSahlgrenska Sports Medicine Center Gothenburg Sweden.
Jacob OedingDepartment of Orthopaedics, Institute of Clinical Sciences, Sahlgrenska Academy University of Gothenburg Gothenburg Sweden.
Ting CongDepartment of Orthopaedic Surgery University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pennsylvania USA.
Elmar HerbstGelenkpunkt-Sports and Joint Surgery FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence-Austria Innsbruck Austria.
Gergely PánicsBudapesti Uzsoki Street Hospital Budapest Hungary.
Philipp W WinklerSahlgrenska Sports Medicine Center Gothenburg Sweden.
Volker MusahlDepartment of Orthopaedic Surgery University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pennsylvania USA.
Eric Hamrin SenorskiSahlgrenska Sports Medicine Center Gothenburg Sweden.
Romain SeilDepartment of Orthopaedic Surgery Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg Luxembourg City Luxembourg.
Christophe LeyDepartment of Mathematics University of Luxembourg Esch-sur-Alzette Luxembourg.
Yinan YuDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering Chalmers University of Technology Gothenburg Sweden.
Thomas TischerDepartment of Orthopaedic Surgery University Medicine Rostock Rostock Germany.
Stefano ZaffagniniII Orthopaedic and Traumatologic Clinic IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli Bologna Italy.
Umile Giuseppe LongoFondazione Policlinico Universitario Campus Bio-Medico Roma Italy.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4063-9821
Michael T HirschmannDepartment of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology Kantonsspital Baselland Bruderholz Switzerland.
Michael HantesDepartment of Orthopaedic Surgery and Musculoskeletal Trauma, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences University of Thessalia Larissa Greece.
Kristian SamuelssonSahlgrenska Sports Medicine Center Gothenburg Sweden.
ESSKA AI Committee

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Surgical artificial intelligence (AI) is typically validated on one patient population and then deployed unchanged into another, without surgeon input into its design. AI in orthopaedics should be built with surgeons, not simply for them: Surgeons should hold shared authority over the clinical question, data curation, validation, implementation, monitoring and retirement of any tool they use. Specialty-tuned models outperform general-purpose systems on some tasks, but the margin is modest and likely to narrow as generalist models improve. The more durable distinction is who controls the update loop-who can retrain a model on local outcomes, audit its failures and withdraw it when it drifts. Trial evidence shows that a clinician kept in that loop by design, not as an afterthought, outperforms working alone. What determines whether orthopaedic AI fulfils its promise is not model architecture, but who stays accountable to the surgeon at the bedside when the model needs to change.

Identifiers

PMID42819874
PMCPMC13625204

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.