SmartTRAK interviews two leaders from the Alliance of Wound Care Stakeholders to discuss its aim to be the unified voice for the wound care community, ensuring quality care for all patients with chronic wounds.

SmartTRAK discusses the ambulatory surgery center (ASC) migration – a multi-billion-dollar redistribution of capital, the mandatory Ambulatory Services Model (ASM) and the companies best positioned to benefit in 2026 and beyond. 

The US Spine Market is navigating a structural shift in the site of service, a regulatory-driven financial squeeze and the arrival of the mandatory Ambulatory Service Model (ASM) in spine care. This value-based model holds specialists financially accountable for the "total cost of care" for Medicare patients with low back pain (LBP). Shifting hospital-based procedures to the ambulatory surgery center (ASC) is one of the most significant opportunities for healthcare savings, and it is especially important in 2026 for procedures such as lumbar fusion and total disc replacements (TDRs). 

This downloadable article highlights the key catalysts SmartTRAK expects to shape the US Spine landscape in 2026 and beyond, including:

•  Landmark Changes in CMS Reimbursement Accelerating Lumbar Procedures to the ASC - The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized the removal of 285 musculoskeletal codes from the Inpatient-Only (IPO) list as part of a three-year phase-out ending in 2028, intended to ... (read more)

• Companies Innovating To Capture ASC Share -  Pure-play spine companies, like ATEC Spine (ATEC), and incumbents are tailoring ASC solutions—offering simplified, modular instrument sets and flexible financing for ... (read more)

SmartTRAK Launches New Software and Service Solutions, Creating a Unified "Smart" Insights Platform for Faster, Smarter Decisions

As the orthopedic industry prepares for the 2026 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), SmartTRAK today announced a major expansion of its "Smart" portfolio of orthopedic market intelligence and advisory solutions. These enhancements are designed to help MedTech leaders move beyond fragmented data and make faster, more confident strategic decisions.

As orthopedic markets grow increasingly complex, success requires more than information. It demands expert interpretation, integrated intelligence and decisive strategy. SmartTRAK continues to combine proprietary data, advanced analytics and deep analyst expertise to power confident growth across MedTech.

• 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)