Anthony M. DiGioia III, MD Named Engineer of the Year by the Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania.

Business Editors, Health/Medical Writers

PITTSBURGH--(BW HealthWire)--March 2, 2000

CASurgica, Inc., the Centers for Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery (CMR/CAS) at Carnegie Mellon University, and UPMC Shadyside Hospital, innovative providers of advanced orthopaedic surgical tools and procedures, announce that Dr. Anthony M. DiGioia III won the 2000 Engineer of the Year Award by the Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania (ESWP) at the organization's 116th annual banquet on February 23, 2000. Dr. DiGioia was honored for his innovations in the area of hip replacement surgery, the patented computer-assisted Hip Navigation System (HipNav), and for the development of the clinical research programs in medical robotics and computer assisted surgery at UPMC Shadyside Hospital and Carnegie Mellon University.

Carl W. Schwartz, 2000 ESWP second vice-president and Engineers' Week committee chair, says, "We selected Dr. DiGioia as Engineer of the Year based on his work in developing HipNav. This work combined the use of robotic and computer technologies with medicine. Dr. DiGioia is being recognized for using engineering to improve a surgical procedure that enables minimally invasive surgical techniques. Additionally, his on-going efforts to push technology to benefit patients, surgeons, and technologists have gained him worldwide respect and recognition as a leader."

Dr. DiGioia is an orthopaedic surgeon whose practice focuses on the clinical application of medical robotics and computer assisted surgery. HipNav's improved technology enables less invasive surgical techniques for total hip replacement and could eventually make many orthopaedic procedures minimally invasive.

"Computer-based technologies hold great potential for improving clinical outcomes and will influence the way orthopaedic surgeons plan, simulate, and execute surgery and provide postoperative clinical follow up," says Dr. DiGioia. "This prestigious award is testimony that our work is recognized as state of the art. We are committed to combining the art and science of surgery for the benefit of our patients. The clinical importance of accuracy in many orthopaedic surgical procedures and the trend towards minimally invasive techniques suggest that important and useful products can be developed for a multitude of orthopaedic surgical procedures based upon the computer-assisted framework of pre-operative planning, pre-operative simulation, and intra-operative navigational guidance. Combined, these efforts will help improve patient outcomes."

Dr. DiGioia, co-director of CMR/CAS at Shadyside and CMU, will co-chair the fourth annual North American Program on Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery (CAOS/USA 2000) in June in Pittsburgh. CAOS/USA 2000 will emphasize state of the art technologies and perspectives on the rapidly evolving field of computer assisted orthopaedic surgery. The conference is designed for practicing orthopaedic surgeons and will educate attendees on computer assisted and image guided surgical techniques and robotic assistive devices. The event will also present the most current views on the impact of computer assisted surgical techniques on the clinical and surgical routine in several orthopaedic subspecialties and promote a new partnership between surgeons, technologists, and industry as a critical foundation for the successful integration of these techniques into the clinical routine. For more information, visit www.caousa.org.

In October 2000, Dr. DiGioia will also co-chair the third international Medical Imaging, Computing, and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) conference on medical robotics, imaging and computer assisted surgery at the upcoming conference in Pittsburgh. The event is sponsored by the Centers for Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery at Carnegie Mellon University and UPMC Shadyside Hospital and the Western Pennsylvania Institute for Computer Assisted Surgery (ICAS). Topics to be addressed at the event include clinical applications of computer technologies and systems, computer-assisted intervention systems and robotics, as well as medical imaging and computing. For more information on the event visit www.miccai.org.

In addition, Dr. DiGioia and the collaborative program from Carnegie Mellon University and UPMC Shadyside were instrumental in the establishment of the first International Society for Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery (ISCAOS) during the recent Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery Conference held in Switzerland in February 2000. ISCAOS has a European headquarters in Bern, Switzerland and a North American office at Shadyside Hospital. Dr. DiGioia is a founding member and was elected as the Inaugural First Vice-President of the Society. The organization unites international resources who are involved with computer assisted orthopaedic surgery, as well as serves as a forum for the exchange of information relating to preoperative planning, intra-operative execution, postoperative follow up, and clinical outcomes by means of computer assistance.

In November 1999, Dr. DiGioia was an invited speaker at the CAOS conference in Essen, Germany. As one of only two US surgeons invited to speak, Dr. DiGioia addressed HipNav, Image Overlay, and the future of CAOS. An article about Dr. DiGioia and Image Overlay appeared in the November issue of Der Spiegel, a leading German publication.

Also in November 1999, Design News, a leading global engineering magazine, nominated Dr. DiGioia as a candidate for its Engineer of the Year award as a result of his orthopaedic surgical excellence in the area of hip replacement surgery and HipNav.

About CASurgica, Inc.

Dr. Anthony M. DiGioia III and Branislav Jaramaz Ph.D. founded CASurgica, Inc. in 1997 in Pittsburgh, PA. The company's goal is to commercialize advanced surgical tools that will assist surgeons and improve clinical results providing cost savings over current techniques. CASurgica plans to market the next-generation advanced computer-assisted surgical tools to provide a substantial improvement over current tools as a result of implementing computer imaging, simulation, and robotics. Its research partners include the Centers for Medical Robotics and Computer-Assisted Surgery at Carnegie Mellon and the UPMC Shadyside Hospital. For more information about Dr. DiGioia, CASurgica, CAOS, or other organizations, visit www.casurgica.com.