Biologics Division

Clinical Outcomes and
Applied Research Studies

Orthobiologics refers to the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders using different autologous and allogenic products.  This treatment modality has been incorrectly advertised as “Stem Cell Therapy” however importantly these products often do not contain any stem cells or in such a small amount to not have patient benefits. Further there is no scientific evidence of any regenerative or direct reparative effect of any of these products despite the majority of advertising on the internet and clinics stating the opposite.  Recently Kingery et al (JBJS 2020) reported that 95.9% of practice websites contained at least one statement of misinformation and “failed to accurately represent the clinical efficacy” of “Stem Cell Therapy”.  It is in fact unethical and illegal to advertise or promote such deceptive claims and accordingly physicians and hospital systems are currently experiencing great difficulty in responding to patients requests for these types of treatment modalities that are not based on accurate scientific evidence.

The Orthobiologics division was established in 2019 as part of a service line initiative of Cincinnati Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center- Mercy Health and the Noyes Knee Institute to address the issues of treatment in using Orthobiologics. Under the leadership  of knowledgeable and experienced physicians Drs. Frank Noyes, Edward Marcheschi, and Sambhu Choudhury and Brian Chilelli, this division is responsible for every phase of our clinical outcome studies and in particular that these treatment modalities when offered are based on scientific evidence and patient understanding as to their benefits and equally understanding the false claims as patients often seek out these therapies expecting a reparative or curative treatment. As previously stated there is a tremendous amount of information available on the internet, but there is a lack of well designed, prospective clinical outcome studies for knee osteoarthritis. An extensive analysis and systematic review was completed by this Division for treating knee osteoarthritis which formed the basis for the clinical outcome studies initiated. This review reaffirmed the pressing need for accurate  clinical information in the treatment algorithm for using these products to treat knee osteoarthritis. Reference is made to the Orthobiologics Treatment section where a summary of current medicines and Orthobiologic approaches is provided.

The first mission  of the Orthobiologics Division is the education of patients and medical professionals on the scientific basis and clinical efficacy of recommending Orthobiologic products to treat knee osteoarthritis based on the most current and scientific publications available world-wide. The second mission is to conduct well designed  studies on the clinical outcomes and efficacy of selected Orthobiologic products.  A final mission is to provide scientifically accurate recommendations to Hospital Systems and patient treatment centers on the incorporation of Orthobiologics into their treatment approaches for knee osteoarthritis.