Rehabilitation Research & Development Service (RR&D)

Roy D, Bloebaum, PhD received the Paul B. Magnuson Award for his selfless dedication to the advancement of the rehabilitative health and care of Veterans after joint replacement or limb loss. Dr. Bloebaum has made enormous advances toward the development of the next generation of prosthetic devices with direct bone attachment. As the Co-Director of Bone and Joint Laboratory over the past 23 years, Dr. Bloebaum has been lead- or co-author on over 100 papers on clinically related and translational work. His personal goal is to safely introduce osseointegrated implants (OI) for Veterans and warfighters with limb loss over the next five years. Under Dr. Bloebaum’s direction, the Bone and Joint Research Lab was established in 1987. The mission statement of this lab is to "contribute knowledge to the advancement of Orthopaedic, clinical and basic sciences through hypothesis-driven basic and translational research programs, providing education programs for patients, clinical care providers, fellows, researchers, and students, which will lead to improved clinical treatments and VA patient care." Accordingly, over the past 23 years, Dr. Bloebaum has successfully managed over 14 major VA, NIH and DOD grants, 25 graduate students, 10 residents, 5 post doctorate fellows, 27 medical students and 36 undergraduate students. He has collaborated with 11 VA physicians. Dr. Bloebaum has over 30 years experience in establishing implant design criteria for implant attachment to the bone. This work has received national and international awards. The current challenge is to secure a permanent skin seal at the skin-implant interface to prevent periprosthetic OI infection. The BJRL has established models to pursue this goal. The lab is one of the few in the world capable of processing large implants in tissue without disturbing the interface. These are essential skills to assess the skin and bone response to the presence of an implant.