The Star: May 26, 2016

20 Thursday May 26 2016
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The Star
Our People
Madeleine Martin
Revolutionising joint replacements
When Madeleine Martin
isn’t working to 3D print new
bones for specialist patients,
she spends her time
adventure racing, travelling
and working with disabled
skiers. She speaks to Emma-
Jane McLennan about her
twin sister and the time she
followed in Marco Polo’s
footsteps along the Silk Road
Madeleine, you work in a very
interesting area – could you
tell me about it?
Yes, I work at Ossis, which is
an orthopaedic designer and
manufacturer. Basically we
work at the really complex end
of cases, where people need
new solutions because of their
unusual anatomy, multiple
hip replacements or the like.
We scan their bones and then
custom make replacements
using 3D metal printing, called
Electron Beam Melting or
EBM. It’s quite different to, say,
plastic 3D printing because of
the structure – we can actually
create a porous structure which
the bones can grow into.
Wow, how long has this been
around for?
The technique has been
around since 2007, and because
it is relatively new we actually
manufacture in the United
States because they’ve got the
right standards. We sell all
around New Zealand and Australia
and are the leader in the
Australasian market.
This is a highly specialist
industry, how did you get into
it?
Well I’ve got a mechanical
engineer father and a physio
mother, so I think I’ve probably
got my Dad’s technical
side. Then through sport, and
with mum and my twin sister
Charlotte working as physios,
I’ve combined both. I
originally did my mechanical
engineering
and commerce degrees
at Canterbury
University, then I
worked in product
development at
Fisher & Paykel
for five years. But
I always knew I
wanted to work
in the medical
profession,
so when
this
opportunity
came up at one
of the only
high-growth
companies
of its kind
in New
Zealand,
I took it.
That was
two and
a half
years
ago now and its still just amazing
seeing these people come in
and be quite wowed by the team
and what we can do for them.
Good on you! Now I hear
you’re pretty busy outside of
work as well – you’re a skier
right?
Yes skiing is a big passion for
me. Actually about four years
ago we went on a big ski trip,
my partner and I and some
friends – probably about 10 of
us. We followed in Marco Polo’s
footsteps along the Silk Road,
we started in Beijing, right up
through Asia and ended up in
Venice in summertime, which
felt pretty weird. It was always
a bit of a dream to do that
really, to combine skiing
and travelling and see lots
of exotic new places. It was
interesting how people in
each place saw our skiing
as well, in some places it
was really just a mode of
transport so they thought
us a bit silly for doing it
for fun.
CUSTOM BONES:
Madeleine Martin
at work.
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