The Carticel Care® team
Meet a few members of the Carticel Care team.
Josh, Clinical Liason
What is your role at Carticel Care?
I’m the clinical liaison for the Carticel Care team. This includes educating and assisting patients through the process of preparing for CARTICEL implantation. I’m available to answer questions that patients may have to help them better understand their cartilage injury, surgical treatment and rehabilitation associated with CARTICEL.
What do you like most about your job?
I enjoy helping people! As part of the Carticel Care team, being a patient advocate is paramount. It’s nice to be a part of that.
What are your hobbies/interests outside of work?
Sports medicine and general health promotion are big interests for me. I’m an athlete for life, and enjoy being active. I like to keep learning and will often be reading and studying in my free time. I also like gardening, and astronomy.
Tannia, Physician Account Manager
What is your role at Carticel Care?
I am the point of contact between physicians, patients and Genzyme Biosurgery. I gather all clinical information by contacting doctors' offices every time a biopsy is received. I review this information and contact the insurance company to facilitate reimbursement. I keep the office staff, doctor and patient informed with the status of their case.
What do you like most about your job?
What I like about my job is the team effort and focusing on patient and issue resolution. No two cases are the same which keeps me motivated over and over to succeed in being a small part in a patients physical improvement and end goal recovery so that they can live a normal life without knee pain.
What are your hobbies/interests outside of work?
Studying the Bible, spending all my free time with my three kiddos and family, singing, working out, dancing and landscaping.
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Have Questions?
Check out our FAQs for answers—or contact a Carticel Care® Coordinator at 800-453-6948, Option #2, for more detailed information.
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Indications and Usage
Carticel® (autologous cultured chondrocytes) is an autologous cellular product indicated for the repair of symptomatic cartilage defects of the femoral condyle (medial, lateral or trochlea), caused by acute or repetitive trauma, in patients who have had an inadequate response to a prior arthroscopic or other surgical repair procedure (e.g., debridement, microfracture, drilling/abrasion arthroplasty, or osteochondral allograft/autograft).
CARTICEL should only be used in conjunction with debridement, placement of a periosteal flap and rehabilitation. The independent contributions of the autologous cultured chondrocytes and other components of the therapy to outcome are unknown.
CARTICEL is not indicated for the treatment of cartilage damage associated with generalized osteoarthritis.
CARTICEL is not recommended for patients with total meniscectomy unless surgically reconstructed prior to or concurrent with CARTICEL implantation.
Important Safety Information
CARTICEL should not be used in patients with a known history of hypersensitivity to gentamicin, other aminoglycosides or materials of bovine origin.
It should not be used in patients who have previously had cancer in the bones, cartilage, fat or muscle of the treated limb.
Pre-existing conditions, including meniscal tears, joint instability, or malalignment should be assessed and treated prior to or concurrent with CARTICEL implantation.
CARTICEL is not routinely tested for transmissible infectious diseases and may transmit disease to the healthcare provider handling CARTICEL.
Use of CARTICEL in children, patients over age 65, or in joints other than the knee has not yet been assessed.
The occurrence of subsequent surgical procedures (SSPs), primarily arthroscopy, following CARTICEL implantation is common. In the Study of the Treatment of Articular Repair (STAR), forty-nine percent (49%) of patients underwent an SSP on the treated knee, irrespective of their relationship to CARTICEL, during the 4-year follow up. The most common serious adverse events (≥5% of patients), derived from STAR, include arthrofibrosis/joint adhesions, graft overgrowth, chondromalacia or chondrosis, cartilage injury, graft complication, meniscal lesion, graft delamination, and osteoarthritis.
For more information on CARTICEL, please see the Package Insert (PDF).