Clinical, Radiological, and Biochemical Evaluation in Orthopedics: Lessons from a Special Issue

Rather than representing isolated advances, the contributions collected in this Special Issue collectively illustrate the transition of orthopedic evaluation from descriptive assessment toward integrated, quantitative, biologically informed and data-driven medicine. Modern orthopedics is no longer defined solely by surgical innovation, but also increasingly by the ability to understand, measure, and predict musculoskeletal disease through multiple, complementary levels of assessment. Clinical examination, imaging, functional outcomes, biological and biochemical markers, regenerative strategies, and artificial intelligence-based tools are progressively converging toward a more integrated model of patient evaluation. In this context, the central challenge is not only to introduce new technologies into orthopedic practice, but also to determine how they can improve diagnosis, guide treatment planning, assess therapeutic efficacy, and ultimately support more personalized patient care.