As the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, the MedTech industry is continuing to see a multitude of changes and disruptions worldwide. SmartTRAK's analysts continue to monitor the effect COVID-19 is having on the Life Sciences industry, sifting through the noise to present the most relevant news to its subscribers and report on the impact the global healthcare crisis is having on the industry at large.

Following is a selection of the COVID-19 updates from the past week as compiled by SmartTRAK:

Surgeon Survey: COVID-19 Impact

• A survey of 50 orthopedic surgeons reported ~40% are still seeing both new and existing pts, while a third is only seeing pts for emergency or urgent issues. Telemedicine adoption has accelerated w/ 32% of survey takers noting some recent use. Canaccord Genuity Industry Report
• According to a 50-surgeon survey, postponements of orthopedic procedures have led to a sharp decline in pt volumes, w/ respondents indicating a 58% avg decline in March and an anticipated 77% avg decline in April. Canaccord Genuity Industry Report
• According to a 50-surgeon survey, 60% indicated that their organizations had already made formal decisions to defer or postpone orthopedic procedures, w/ ~33% indicating that over 90% of their entire practice was deferrable. Canaccord Genuity Industry Report
  
  

• SmartTRAK physician checks suggest elective procedure volumes for aneurysm cases will pick up in H219, assuming social isolation and other non- pharmaceutical interventions effectively reduce the spread of COVID-19 and healthcare demand.
• SmartTRAK is hearing from neurointerventionalists that COVID-19 is affecting elective procedure volumes for aneurysm cases, but those patients are being rescheduled—not canceled. Mechanical thrombectomy procedures have not been impacted to date.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to develop rapidly, the MedTech industry is already seeing many changes and disruptions. SmartTRAK has collected updates and news from the last few days concerning the spread of COVID-19 and how it is affecting the Life Sciences Industry.

COVID-19 AWCS

• Alliance of Wound Care Stakeholders (AWCS) held an emergency call to discuss hospital wound care clinics being considered non-essential and being asked to close due to COVID-19. Participants included wound clinics, providers and manufactures.
• Medical Directors from Healogics and Restorix, and other wound clinics requested the AWCS publish a one page fact sheet asap stating the importance of wound clinics staying open for challenging pts, as w/o care, the probability of needing emergency care increases significantly.

ACS Issues Decision-Making Guidance on Elective Procedures
With calls to curtail elective surgery, the ACS published guidance on the mgmt of non-emergent operations and suggests surgeons use SLU’s Elective Surgery Acuity Scale to help decide whether procedures should be postponed, performed at an ASC or not postponed.

Tracking COVID-19 via Smart Phones
The US Government is talking w/ tech companies (Facebook, Google, etc) and health experts re how they can use data gleaned from Americans’ phones to map the spread of COVID-19 to predict the next hotspot or decide where to allocate resources. Seattle Times

Are you getting ready to head out to Las Vegas to attend NANS 2020 - the North American Neuromodulation Society 23rd Annual Meeting? We sat down with Anne Staylor, SmartTRAK's Managing Editor and Senior Director of Advanced Technologies for our new series, Know Before You Go, to find out what she's looking forward to ahead of NANS 2020.

NANS 2020, billed as the premier meeting in the field of neuromodulation, is being held this year at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, NV, and will showcase the latest scientific research and technical advancements in neuromodulation.

To hear Anne's take on the upcoming meeting, just click on the following video to listen to the full interview. A transcript of the interview is also provided below the video.

SmartTRAK hosted a tour, dinner reception and briefing at Gothenburg's Universeum before EWMA 2019. Attendees were treated to a private tour of the Universeum and the Ocean Zone prior to dinner and the briefing, entitled Trends, Opportunities and Innovations in Advanced Wound Care, with a special focus on the European market.

Beautiful Gothenburg, Sweden is hosting EWMA 2019 - the European Wound Management Association conference, on June 5-9.

Gothenburg, Sweden's second largest city after Stockholm, located on the coast in southwestern Sweden, is considered "the quintessential 'second city': understatedly hip and unexpectedly vibrant with neoclassical architecture lining its tram-rattled streets, locals sunning themselves beside canals, and always an interesting cultural or social event going on."

Here are some of SmartTRAK's top things to do when taking a break from the conference. And we know what we're talking about - SmartTRAK's Senior Analyst, Advanced Wound Care, Lennart Stadler lives there!

By all accounts, Charlotte, the Queen City, is one of the South's largest and most successful cities, having retained its Southern charm and friendliness despite its rapid growth in the past 20 years.

While attending SAWC Spring 2018, here are SmartTRAK's Top 10 Picks for places to eat,  interesting things to do and places to visit while in Charlotte.