The world's first TMJ Bioengineering Conference was held May 25- 27, 2006, in Broomfield, Colorado. Presentations were given by 34 invited speakers representing industry, academics, government agencies such as NIH, and private practice, which included surgeons, engineers, biomedical scientists, and patient advocacy leaders.
Despite the tremendous patient population and the significant morbidity related to a plethora of TMJ disorders, the TMJ has been poorly studied in comparison to joints of interest to the orthopaedic community. Unlike the orthopaedic community, there is no organized continuity between engineers, scientists and clinicians in the TMJ research community. For this reason, Professor Detamore organized the TMJ Bioengineering Conference along with Professors Jeremy Mao (Columbia University) and Kyriacos Athanasiou (Rice University).
This meeting was the first of its kind, bringing patients and surgeons together to deliver specific directives to bioengineers. The overall meeting objective was to provide a unique forum for bioengineers and scientists to exchange ideas and perspectives with clinicians and patients, in an effort to identify contemporary challenges with treating TMJ disorders and to devise strategies to address these challenges with bioengineering. The premiere groups of surgeons and patients issued directives to bioengineers. The immediate past president of the American Society of TMJ Surgeons delivered a keynote address based on a consensus of priority issues formulated at their annual meeting, and the president of the TMJ Association patient organization delivered a keynote address based on previous meetings and decades of experience and interaction with TMJ patients.
The major findings of the conference have been submitted to a bioengineering journal for publication, with the highest priority needs for TMJ research identified in an effort to draw new talent into TMJ research. The TMJ Bioengineering Conference was a success, serving as a milestone expansion in TMJ research, as a forum to establish continuity between surgeons, scientists, engineers, and patients, and as a tool to attract new talent to advancing TMJ science.
