Opportunities for nanotechnology-enabled bioactive bone implants

Until recently, traditional orthopedic implant materials termed “bioactive” have been engineered to actively promote integration with living bone. We propose to look beyond this traditional form of bioactivity (specifically for orthopedics, in which bioactivity refers to osseointegration), and introduce the use of nanoscale surface features, fabricated using various nanotechnology tools, to provide extended functionality to implants and thus create a new class of “smarter” bioactive implant materials.