A practical guide to the implementation of artificial intelligence in orthopaedic research—Part 2: A technical introduction
Review article, 2024

Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) present a broad range of possibilities in medical research. However, orthopaedic researchers aiming to participate in research projects implementing AI-based techniques require a sound understanding of the technical fundamentals of this rapidly developing field. Initial sections of this technical primer provide an overview of the general and the more detailed taxonomy of AI methods. Researchers are presented with the technical basics of the most frequently performed machine learning (ML) tasks, such as classification, regression, clustering and dimensionality reduction. Additionally, the spectrum of supervision in ML including the domains of supervised, unsupervised, semisupervised and self-supervised learning will be explored. Recent advances in neural networks (NNs) and deep learning (DL) architectures have rendered them essential tools for the analysis of complex medical data, which warrants a rudimentary technical introduction to orthopaedic researchers. Furthermore, the capability of natural language processing (NLP) to interpret patterns in human language is discussed and may offer several potential applications in medical text classification, patient sentiment analysis and clinical decision support. The technical discussion concludes with the transformative potential of generative AI and large language models (LLMs) on AI research. Consequently, this second article of the series aims to equip orthopaedic researchers with the fundamental technical knowledge required to engage in interdisciplinary collaboration in AI-driven orthopaedic research. Level of Evidence: Level IV.

sports medicine

orthopaedics

machine learning

artificial intelligence

research methods

Author

Bálint Zsidai

Sahlgrenska University Hospital

University of Gothenburg

Janina Kaarre

University of Gothenburg

University of Pittsburgh

Sahlgrenska University Hospital

Eric Narup

Sahlgrenska University Hospital

University of Gothenburg

Eric Hamrin Senorski

Sahlgrenska University Hospital

University of Gothenburg

Sportrehab Sports Medicine Clinic

Ayoosh Pareek

Hospital for Special Surgery

Alberto Grassi

University of Gothenburg

IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Bologna

Christophe Ley

University of Luxembourg

Umile Giuseppe Longo

Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma

Campus Bio Medico University Hospital

Elmar Herbst

Division of General Internal Medicine

Michael T. Hirschmann

Canton Hospital Basel-Land

Sebastian Kopf

Medizinische Hochschule Brandenburg Theodor Fontane

Romain Seil

Luxembourg Institute of Research in Orthopaedics

Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg

Luxembourg Institute of Health

Thomas Tischer

Clinic for Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery

Kristian Samuelsson

University of Gothenburg

Sahlgrenska University Hospital

Robert Feldt

Chalmers, Computer Science and Engineering (Chalmers), Software Engineering (Chalmers)

Journal of Experimental Orthopaedics

2197-1153 (eISSN)

Vol. 11 3 e12025

Subject Categories (SSIF 2011)

Language Technology (Computational Linguistics)

Social Sciences Interdisciplinary

DOI

10.1002/jeo2.12025

More information

Latest update

6/15/2026