• Bacteria are becoming resistant to silver, making it less effective.
• Several existing antimicrobial technologies may induce cytotoxic effects.
• Silver dressings are commoditized, and the market is hungry for novel and innovative alternatives.
• Stricter medical rules (antimicrobial stewardship) now require clinicians to be more careful about how they use germ-killing treatments, as there has been a widespread habit of using these dressings on wounds that do not actually need them.

In the complete downloadable article, SmartTRAK highlights in detail four companies to watch in 2026 with advanced dressings that offer new approaches to attacking bioburden and infection while limiting antimicrobial resistance. They are:

• Convatec: Seeing Great Potential with ConvaNiox 
   Convatecis the global leader in the antimicrobial dressings market with its Aquacel Ag range. It is evident that they are convinced that ConvaNiox will be their next big brand in wound care ... (read more)

•  Polaroid Therapeutics
   Polaroid Therapeutics (PTx) is a Swiss-based biotech start-up developing innovative products and solutions using its proprietary novel antimicrobial technology  ... (read more)

The American College of Foot & Ankle Surgeons (ACFAS) is once again bringing together the leading clinicians, researchers and manufacturers to the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas for the ACFAS 2026 Annual Meeting, to be held February 23-27.

SmartTRAK will be represented at ACFAS 2026 by Natasha Weeks, SmartTRAK GM & Senior Analyst, Trauma & Extremities, Dave Shepherd, GM & Senior Analyst Orthobio & Regen Med and Thom Clark, Sr Director, Enterprise Strategy & Solutions. If you would like to meet with us, please reach out to natasha.weeks@smarttrak.com, david.shepherd@smarttrak.com, or just click the link below.

To get you up to speed before the meeting, SmartTRAK has put together highlights of recent foot & ankle news. The following is just a small sampling of recent foot & ankle-related news and updates from around the world compiled, reviewed and posted in real-time every day by the expert analysts at SmartTRAK.

Market

• SmartTRAK estimates full-year US Foot & Ankle revenues for 2025 will grow in the high single-digit range YoY, in line with SmartTRAK’s US Foot & Ankle Market Overview projection of +8.8% YoY growth. SmartTRAK Financial Dashboard.
• Based on Foot & Ankle Fixation revenue YTD 2025, the US Foot & Ankle Fixation segment is driving growth in the overall US Foot & Ankle Market, growing +9.1%, in line w/ SmartTRAK’s original Foot & Ankle Fixation Market projection of +8.8% YoY growth. SmartTRAK Financial Dashboard
• The Total Ankle Replacement Market is also propelling the US Foot & Ankle Market, up +8.8% YTD in line w/ SmartTRAK’s original Total Ankle Replacement Market projection of +9.0 YoY growth. SmartTRAK Financial Dashboard

We are pleased to announce that Kent Pendleton has joined the SmartTRAK team as Senior Director of Spine, Neuro and Osteobiologic Solutions. Kent joins us after successful positions in Medtech, Life Science and SaaS Managed Services with an emphasis on Data Analytics.

Kent started his career in med device selling blood chemistry analyzers for Becton Dickinson and Dade-Behring before being hired by Synthes USA (now DePuy-Synthes), where he spent the next 20 years supporting trauma and joint replacement systems in the operating room. Following a desire to learn how Software - and Insights-as-a-Service can fuel the success of a business, Kent moved to ADP, a company with a data set so large that the US government relies on it for the national jobs report. Kent and his family reside in the northwest suburbs of Chicago.

Meet Kent Pendleton:

What is your role with SmartTRAK? As Senior Director of Spine, Neuro and Osteobiologic Solutions, my role is to guide clients to better understand and anticipate their markets, with a high degree of specificity, in order to sharpen their commercial strategy and gain a competitive advantage.

What do you like about SmartTRAK? SmartTRAK is a lean team of tenured industry experts with the firepower to make our clients better at what they do. That might sound broad and even bold, but when I consider how many areas across the breadth of a business that we can empower – from R&D to legal, clinical & regulatory, marketing & sales, finance, even equity investors – it’s clear we can bring a significant impact.

What is something special or unique that you bring to SmartTRAK subscribers? My career has required me to bring value in the OR and in the boardroom, which are two very different skill sets.

Consultative selling in orthopedics taught me that the right device in a well-trained surgeon’s hands can make a major difference in a patient’s outcome. There is tremendous specificity and nuance in that equation, and it fueled my passion for this unique industry.

More recently my focus has been

SmartTRAK reviews how the changes to skin substitute reimbursement reforms may impact each site of service and what it means for patients, providers and manufacturers.

 In response to the meteoric rise in spending, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) enacted payment reforms, establishing a standardized reimbursement rate of ~$127/sq cm for skin substitutes across physician offices, mobile and hospital outpatient departments (HOPD). SmartTRAK believes that these reimbursement reforms could trigger an access-to-care crisis for some patients in the wound care sector. This could result in care being shifted to the high-cost, inpatient operating room (OR) for the most critical patients or lead to an increased number of amputations. The system may realize short-term savings on grafts, but the systemic result could be a spike in the total cost of care for some patients and, for others, no advanced care at all.

Since 2021, the US Advanced Wound Care Market has undergone a transformation defined by a "site-of-service" migration away from the hospital outpatient department (HOPD). As CMS implemented restrictive bundled-payment models in HOPDs in 2014 that capped reimbursement in “high” and “low” buckets, care began to shift toward... (read more)

• The Physician Office (PFS) - In the physician office (PO), the $127/sq cm rate could result in a "reverse triage" effect, where minor or complex wounds become ...(read more)

Throughout 2025, SmartTRAK empowered MedTech professionals to Be The Expert by providing timely, data-driven insights across key markets. From orthopedics and wound care to regenerative medicine and neurotherapy, our analysts delivered meaningful real-time analysis you could act on. Scroll down to see a dozen of SmartTRAK’s most impactful blog posts of 2025.

These blog posts are just a glimpse of the data we cover every day. Want to see the real-time analytics and deep-dive reports behind these headlines? Schedule a demo today to see how SmartTRAK can help you master your market in 2026.

1. The Future of “Skin Substitutes” - What’s the Alternative?
   SmartTRAK reviews possible alternatives to LCDs and CMS’ proposed payment model for Cellular, Acellular, and Matrix-like Products (CAMPs) commonly referred to by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as “skin substitutes” and the potential impact on the market.
   
   
2. Terumo Neuro: Aiming for #1 in Neurovascular 
   Carsten Schroeder, president and CEO of Terumo Neuro, discusses the company’s plans to capture share and become the market leader in neurovascular.
   
   
3. What's Next in Orthopedic Trauma? 
   SmartTRAK reviews the evolving trauma startup landscape in 2025, spotlighting five innovators, followed by a comparative chart mapping 19 emerging companies.
   
   
4. Impact of Final Physician Fee Schedule on US Skin Substitutes in 2026
   Wound GM Kris Flinn and Senior Analysts Elizabeth Anderson and Jay Merkel discuss the impact of the final physician fee schedule on US Skin Substitutes in 2026.
   
   
   
   

Theradaptive’s Chief Scientific Officer Frank Vizesi provides an overview of the company’s unique protein and how it hopes to disrupt the bone replacement market in an interview with SmartTRAK at the 2025 NASS Biologic Interventions Meeting.

Frank Vizesi, chief scientific officer of Theradaptive, discusses how the company is focused on creating a new recombinant BMP-2 to solve existing problems within the Bone Replacement Market in an interview with SmartTRAK on May 9, 2025, at the 2025 North American Spine Society (NASS) Biologics Interventions meeting in Chicago, Illinois. The company is developing a new version of recombinant BMP-2 called AMP-2, an adhesive variant of BMP-2 that retains the whole protein structure of BMP-2 and all its potency to bind to implant surfaces tightly.

Click on the following video (10:47 min) to learn more. A link to download a complete transcript of the interview is also provided below.

SmartTRAK: Hi, this is Erin Dorgan, senior analyst here at SmartTRAK. I'm here today with Frank Vizesi, chief scientific officer at Theradaptive. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time. Do you mind sharing a little more about your background and role at Theradaptive?

Frank Vizesi: Sure. Thanks for having me today. So my background, originally PhD, biomedical engineer from Sydney, Australia. Was very lucky to do my studies with the great professor, Bill Walsh, a good friend, and we still talk almost daily at this point.

My background now, I've been in the spine industry based out of San Diego, California for almost 20 years. Started off with NuVasive in the biologics R&D team there. I then left to join a spin out called SeaSpine. Ultimately I was the chief scientific officer of SeaSpine. Then we were acquired and merged with Orthofix and I became the chief scientific officer of the combined company then.

About a year ago, just a little over a year ago, I left to join a new startup called Theradaptive, the company who I've been tracking for probably about five or six years. Being in the biologic space I'm always interested to find out where the next most advanced bone graft is going to come from. I've been tracking quite a few different companies and I just sort of fell in love with the technology of Theradaptive, it's very advanced, and the team there. And decided that the best way to help bring your really advanced bone biologic product to market that can really help patients and solve problems would be to come and join the company.

It was the first time for me to join a startup, my previous background all being in publicly traded companies, but I've been having a blast.

Can you share a little bit more about the technology at Theradaptive and what they're doing?

FV: Yeah, sure. So let me start first with maybe the opportunity or the problem. So right now in the biologic space, surgeons really have a choice between ...

Want to learn more about Theradaptive and how it hopes to disrupt the bone replacement market? Click the button below to download and read the complete transcript of our exclusive interview with Frank Vizesi, CSO of Theradaptive, conducted by Erin Dorgan, SmartTRAK Sr Analyst, Spine & Bone Replacement.

SmartTRAK spoke with the Westbrook Weaver, CEO of Tempo Therapeutics, to discuss the company’s new technology, how it works and the results of the clinical work they’ve completed so far.

In the wound care space, there has always been an unmet need for a product that can provide volumetric wound filling in addition to simply closing the wound. Tempo Therapeutics is looking to utilize microporous annealed particle technology, or MAP, to address this need. In an interview with SmartTRAK, Westbrook Weaver, PhD, President and CEO of Tempo Therapeutics introduces their technology for creating a three-dimensional scaffold.

To learn more about Tempo Therapeutics, click on the following video (16:41 min). A link to download a complete transcript of the interview is also provided below.

Interview Transcript: