Some projects become part of your everyday life without you even realizing it. For me, the iKnee has always been one of them.
For years, I’ve heard my dad talk about design changes, testing, milestones, and the next steps. I’d hear bits and pieces over dinner, on work calls, or whenever someone asked how the project was coming along. Back then, I didn’t understand all of the technical details, but I understood that it was a revolutionary procedure that would help with comfort for many people.
Now, after years of development, the project I’ve heard about for so long is reaching one of its biggest milestones. On July 31, my dad, Eric Hansen, will become the first person to receive the Resilient Arthroplasty Device (RAD) iKnee in a first-in-human procedure under the oversight of the Advarra Institutional Review Board.
As his daughter, it’s hard to put into words what that feels like. More than anything, I’m excited.
Not just because he’s my dad, but because I’ve had the chance to watch this idea grow from conversations at home into something that’s about to become a reality. It’s exciting to see years of hard work, persistence, and belief lead to this moment.
Watching It Come Together
This has been years in the making, and there has been so much hard work to make it come to fruition.
I’ve watched my dad and the team spend countless hours working through challenges, testing ideas, making improvements, and reaching one milestone after another. There were plenty of conversations about what still needed to be done before they could take the next step, and now that day is finally here.
Nearly 1.5 million people get a knee replaced in the U.S. every year, and by the numbers my dad has quoted to me more times than I can count, about one in five of them end up unhappy with how it turned out. He wanted to close that gap. On July 31, 2026, he intends to stop just talking about it.
When I asked my dad why he wanted to be Patient One, he responded, “I’m not going to ask someone else to trust something I haven’t trusted myself.”
That response didn’t surprise me at all. If anything, it felt exactly like something he’d say. I am so excited for the next step and to be there through the recovery process. This is not only a huge step for the PFD team; it is so important to me and my family.
–Chloe Hansen
For more information about the iKnee, check out iorthopedicsinc.com.