Industry Voices

In January, The Hip Society and The Knee Society in partnership signed an agreement to acquire Current Concepts in Joint Replacement. For nearly 40 years, CCJR has educated thousands of joint replacement surgeons around the world, giving them a platform to debate surgical techniques and discuss trending topics of the day-conversations that have advanced orthopedics. The bi-annual conference will hold its Spring Meeting from May 8-11 in Cleveland, Ohio, and is expected to host surgeons, device companies and contract manufacturers.

Companies often treat the Japanese market as an afterthought-after they're established in the U.S. and Europe, they'll decide what it takes to enter Japan. But as the U.S. market shifts to value-based care and as hospitals consolidate suppliers, and as the EU implements the stricter Medical Device Regulation, the Japanese market may look more attractive.

Dr. Martin Roche: "The surgeon still wants to operate, but if this technology makes the procedure more consistent, efficient and generates improved outcomes, the patients will request it and surgeons will utilize the data to potentially develop the next surgical procedures and personalized implants."

To measure and improve patient care, NASS has launched a diagnosis-based clinical data registry to track outcomes. The web-based platform will allow healthcare providers to collect and analyze their spine care data and compare it to the de-identified data in the entire registry.

The future for spine care is bright, but will require strategically rethinking traditional business practices with a greater emphasis on collaboration and more intimately understanding the respective products, services and goals for each stakeholder: providers, physicians and OEMs.

The OMTEC 2018 opening Keynote Panel offered perspective on hospital actions and priorities while addressing critical industry topics including pressure from public and private payors, bundled payments, value analysis committees and outpatient surgeries.

At AAOS, we sat down with the CEOs of Bioventus and Histogenics to ask about opportunities that their companies are embracing, as well as the health of the orthobiologics market. Both mentioned advancements in therapies demonstrated through clinical trials and outcomes, and both discussed the importance of keeping younger, active patients healthy and mobile. Here we recap a portion of those conversations.

In his nearly 30 years with MTF, Bruce Stroever has watched the entity grow to more than 1,100 employees and over $400 million in annual revenue. An ORTHOWORLD Member, we asked Mr. Stroever to share how he has experienced success.

We spoke to Bone Solutions CEO, Drew Diaz, about topics ranging from data collection to struggles for startups and the future of orthopaedic technology.

Minimally invasive surgical (MIS) products are a staple of todays spine company portfolios. In anticipation of new devices to be launched at the NASS Annual Meeting, we asked James F. Marino, M.D., a thought leader in MIS and founder of companies NuVasive and Trinity Orthopedics, about the technologies.