Interview with Dr. Ben Woodhead

We recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Ben Woodhead and learn more about his background and experiences using InSet™ Systems from Shoulder Innovations in his practice as an orthopedic surgeon. An edited version of our interview led by Dave Blue follows.

Dave Blue:

Dr. Woodhead, can you provide a little background about yourself and how you got involved in healthcare, specifically in orthopedics?

Dr. Ben Woodhead:

Yeah, so I had kind of a torturous route to where I’m at today. I was actually a PA prior to going back to medical school. When I had finished PA school, I made the decision to go back to medical school, and thankfully as a PA, I was exposed to a lot of specialties. I really did like orthopedics, and this was my goal, knowing that I wanted to go back to medical school in order to do orthopedics.

Honestly, I was very fortunate and blessed to be able to match in orthopedics. More specifically, we had a lot of shoulder exposure during my residency. I really felt that shoulder was still a new field at the time and still kind of is. So, I thought it was a great opportunity to try and get into a shoulder fellowship. And that’s kind of where it’s led me today.

Dave Blue:

How long have you been using the InSet™ system, and how did you first become familiar with it?

Dr. Ben Woodhead:

Another shoulder surgeon that I did residency with started using the Shoulder Innovations. So, I naturally was inquisitive about it. I think that the InSet™ system really can kind of grab you from an anatomic shoulder perspective because the InSet™ for the anatomic shoulder is different than most anything on the market. I started out like several other surgeons by using the InSet™ Glenoid for an anatomic shoulder, but still used the same implant company for the humeral side that I was accustomed to since you could mix and match the heads as well as the glenoid component.

Dave Blue:

You’ve expanded that usage now from just the glenoid, which is great. Can you share a little more about how that progressed?

Dr. Ben Woodhead:

Honestly, the one tray system was super appealing because I always had to have the Shoulder Innovations Glenoid available for the anatomic, and then I would have the other company available for the humeral stem. The natural transition for me was that I really liked the glenoid side of the Shoulder Innovations for the anatomic shoulder so, I was like, “Why don’t I try and do the humeral side?”

Now, I didn’t jump to the reverse initially. But as I started using the humeral stem for the anatomic total shoulders, I really fell in love with the instruments and everything about the Shoulder Innovations system. So, once I was happy with that transition for the anatomic side, then that’s when I started at least attempting it for the reverse. I was a little leery at first. I felt like it would slow me down a little bit from what I had been using. However, I ended up really noticing a big difference with the reverse as well. I have to say, I really like the reverse shoulder, actually almost more than the anatomic now, if that’s possible.

Dave Blue:

Wow, that’s quite the statement, and fun to hear about that evolution. If you think back about the different patients, whether it’s been just anatomic or reverse, is there one or two of these success stories that come to mind that you just go wow, this really demonstrates the effectiveness of the InSet™ system?

Dr. Ben Woodhead:

I can think of a lot of them! What has really changed my perspective is that initially, I use InSet™ Glenoid anatomic for my most complex patients, specifically those I was concerned about experiencing the rocking horse phenomenon, such as younger individuals or laborers. They performed remarkably well, and their success made logical sense to me. Consequently, I began to consider, “Why not implement this technique for all my patients?”

The patients that come to mind were the first couple total shoulders that I did early on that I was just blown away with how well they did. I just felt a lot more comfortable, even in those B2 glenoids or the more complex glenoid using the InSet™ glenoid, and I just felt leaving the OR that I was a lot more confident.

Dave Blue:

That’s great! If you were sitting down with a fellow surgeon to talk with them about this technology for the first time, how would you describe it to him?

Dr. Ben Woodhead:

To start, it’s certainly innovative. I think that Shoulder Innovations is on the cusp of doing new things in shoulder, which a lot of other companies are not doing. I’ve been using this for probably a year and a half. I think that’s one of the biggest things with the company is they are really trying to improve it and make it better, as opposed to just putting a product out there and leaving it as is. Shoulder Innovations actually seeks and implements surgeon input! For me, that’s super encouraging because you’re dealing with a company that is always willing to adapt and change to make things better, and I think that’s fantastic.

Dave Blue:

Thanks for saying that, and that’s great to hear. Going into the procedure specifically, do you have any tips or pieces of advice that you would give other surgeons if they were using this system for the first time? Any tips, tricks or pearls that you found helpful?

Dr. Ben Woodhead:

If you’re going to try new technology or you’re going to try anything new, there certainly is going to be a learning curve, which is true of using anything new. So, the tips and tricks that I’ve learned just come with more volume. The more of these you do, the more comfortable you get, and you also notice all of the perks of this system. If it is difficult at first, I would continue to give it time to learn the nuances of the system as it is very user friendly.

I think we’re in a day and age where everybody is obsessed with augments (especially from a reverse standpoint) when you’re dealing with severely retroverted glenoids. I’ve tried almost every augmented reverse out there on the market, and I think that the augmented baseplate for Shoulder Innovations is one of the most user-friendly augments out there. That’s actually one of the easiest transitions if you’re going to start doing the augmented base place, if you’re really looking for something that is fairly simple.

Dave Blue:

Thank you, Dr. Woodhead. Do you have any closing thoughts or anything we didn’t cover that you’d like to add?

Dr. Ben Woodhead:

I’ve been very happy with the evolution of going from the InSet™ Glenoid, to the humeral stem, and then to the reverse. I think that SI has a tremendous amount of options to tackle many of the difficult problems we face as shoulder surgeons.

In today’s market, it’s somewhat hard to always have an implant that covers everything, and so I think SI is certainly working on that and trending toward that. I think that SI has really changed the market to some degree with some of their newer technologies by having solutions for both the straightforward and more complex cases. That’s one of the things that I’ve been the most happy with.

Dave Blue:

Thank you again so much for taking this time Dr. Woodhead, I really appreciate it.

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Dr. Woodhead is an orthopedic surgeon in Lincoln, NE.