SmartTRAK identifies trends to watch in Spine

By most accounts, the Spine market has stabilized with modest low single-digit growth expected this year. Medtronic CEO Omar Ishrak agrees that the Spine market seems to have stabilized and is starting to inch back up. However, he suggests that it is still slower than a year or two ago as price declines are now offsetting procedure growth, resulting in flat to low single-digit to growth. For 2019, Needham analysts are modeling 2% spine market growth with overall orthopedic market growth of 3.4%.

New strategic alliance expands SmartTRAK market research capabilities

BioMedGPS, developer of SmartTRAK Business Intelligence, is excited to announce a new strategic partnership with Quomeda, a widely respected international healthcare research consultancy firm located in the UK.  Through this new alliance, SmartTRAK has expanded its suite of strategic advisory services globally to include custom consulting as well as provider, hospital and procedural volume data.

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.

OrthogenRx CEO & Founder Michael Daley talks about the Company’s new 3-injection HA product, TriVisc and what will come next.

Michael Daley, CEO & Founder of OrthogenRx, a US medical device company focused on treatments for musculoskeletal conditions, talked about TriVisc, the Company’s new 3-injection hyaluronic acid (HA) product for knee osteoarthritis, as well as the future at OrthogenRx, in an interview with SmartTRAK at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons 2019 Annual Meeting held March 12-14, 2019 in Las Vegas, NV.

What is the rational for OrthogenRx to bring TriVisc now to a very crowded 3-injection HA segment?

To have a presence in the entire US HA market, OrthogenRx aims to provide...

Elise Wolf, SmartTRAK's Senior Analyst, Computer Assisted Surgery, will be representing SmartTRAK at CAOS International 2019, the 19th Annual Meeting of the  International Society for Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery, to be held in New York, June 19-22 at the Midtown Hilton.

Elise, with bachelor's and master's degrees in bioengineering, designed biologically inspired robots for the Department of Defense at a spin-off of Carnegie Mellon University. After robotics, she transitioned to the medical device industry and has more than 15 years of experience in product development, marketing, and business development consulting in emerging medical device technologies and orthopedics. Elise has worked with BioMedGPS since 2009 as a SmartTRAK Senior Analyst covering orthopedics and Computer-Assisted Surgery.

You can view Elise's intro video below...

Frederique Buntoum (aka Freddy), SmartTRAK's Senior Analyst, Regenerative Medicine, overseeing the Cell Processing, Amniotic Tissue and Joint Fluid modules, will be representing SmartTRAK at TOBI 2019, the Tenth Annual PRP & Regenerative Medicine Symposium in Chicago, IL, June 6-8. 

You can view Freddy's intro video below...

SmartTRAK examines what the combined company will look like in terms of revenue, product portfolios, financial performance and more.

In its biggest deal to date, 3M recently announced the acquisition of wound care giant Acelity and its KCI subsidiaries for $6.7B, a move that propels 3M to the top of the Advanced Wound Care (AWC) market when the deal closes in H219.

Dr. Ronald Baxter of Baylor University and Spectral MD, discusses the Spectral MD DeepView Wound Imaging System in predicting DFU wound healing utilizing artificial intelligence in an interview with SmartTRAK.

Spectral MD has developed the DeepView Wound Imaging System to utilize real-time data and artificial intelligence to predict wound healing. The Company has seen initial success in burn treatment and is now moving into validation of their system for diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) with the goal to predict a wound’s healing potential at the initial clinical visit.

To learn more about Spectral MD’s multi-spectral imaging system, DeepView; the pilot DFU study to analyze the predictive qualities of its artificial intelligence deep learning program, and the company’s plans moving forward; SmartTRAK interviewed Dr. Ronald Baxter, of Baylor University and Spectral MD.

A transcript of SmartTRAK’s interview with Dr. Baxter is below. To view the interview recorded live at SAWC Spring 2019, click on the following video.

As surgeries get pushed to later in the year, growth against easier comps does not signal market strengthening

The US Total Joints Market, which comprises approximately 55% of the global market, experienced stronger growth YoY, up+1.6% for Q119 compared to -0.8% in Q118, according to SmartTRAK Financial Dashboard. Growth also increased sequentially from Q418’s 1.5%.

The market benefited from easier comps against Q118’s nasty flu season which prompted hospitals across the US to postpone surgeries. But SmartTRAK does not believe the bump in growth in the face of easy comps signals a strengthening recon market. Looking back on a 2-yr basis, the market appears to have decelerated 50 bps which suggests an accompanying slow down in the number of procedures taking place early in the year. Wells Fargo’s Larry Biegelsen speculates that...

Among the many topics covered in the Q119 Total Joints Market Recap are:

SmartTRAK interviews Arthrosurface CEO Steve Ek about the Company’s newest shoulder system, the OVOMotion, and what differentiates it from other current and emerging shoulder systems

The orthopedic industry has sharpened its focus on value-based care. Health care providers are looking for technologies that maximize care, reduce costs and increase efficiencies, while patients are seeking affordable treatment options that will restore their function and improve their quality of life.

At the 2019 American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) Annual Meeting, Arthrosurface CEO Steve Ek, Dr. Greg Nicholson, Rush University Medical Center, and Dr. Anthony Miniaci, Cleveland Clinic, discussed the Company’s newest shoulder implant system, the OVOMotion stemless shoulder, and its value proposition for both health care providers and patients in an interview with SmartTRAK.

(This is Part 2 of SmartTRAK’s interview with Arthrosurface. Be sure to see Part 1 - "Arthrosurface Takes Aim at Patellofemoral Pain" - in which Arthrosurface discusses their new patellofemoral joint implant, the Wave Kahuna.)