SmartTRAK highlights AAOS’ OrthoPitch 2025 finalists.

Innovation has always been a key growth driver in orthopedics and startups have been responsible for some of the most novel and innovative orthopedic products ever to reach the market. At the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) 2025 Annual Meeting in San Diego, orthopedic startups were in the spotlight in the second annual OrthoPitch event, a Shark Tank-like competition sponsored, in part, by SmartTRAK.

Forty companies applied, but only four reached the finals and made their pitches at the event. In this article, SmartTRAK highlights the companies and technologies that made it to the OrthoPitch finals and announces the winner of the competition.

The finalists were:

• VISIE
  • VISIE, formerly known as Advanced Scanners, is a medtech startup located in Austin, TX. The company has developed proprietary hardware and software that ... (read more)
• 16 Bit
  • 16 Bit is a radiologist-founded medical technology company, located in Toronto, Ontario, focused on creating ... (read more)
• Auctus Surgical
  • California-based Auctus Surgical has developed a flexible tether implant designed for ... (read more)
• SentryX
  • SentryX, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company founded as a spin-out of the University Medical Center Utrecht in The Netherlands, has developed ... (read more)

SmartTRAK is proud to sponsor events such as OrthoPitch that foster an environment of innovation in orthopedics. We congratulate Visie, 16 Bit, Auctus Surgical and SentryX on making it to the final round.

AND THE WINNER IS ...

Click the button below to read more about each company's innovation and to find out who won the second annual OrthoPitch at AAOS 2025.

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SmartTRAK is the Medtech industry’s only global Insights-as-a-Service solution for the Orthopedics, Wound Care, Regenerative Medicine and Neuro Therapy markets.  SmartTRAK’s propriety methodology turns disparate data from hundreds of sources into powerful insights customers can rely on as the trusted source for strategic decision-making. The  SmartTRAK enterprise platform includes rich daily updates, comprehensive market coverage and simple-to-use tools and dashboards for market, product and financial analysis. Customers leveraging the  SmartTRAK platform also have direct access to market experts for inquiries and advisory services. If you would like a demo of what  SmartTRAK has to offer and see how we can help increase proficiency, improve productivity and reduce costs for your company, just click  here. 

 

Soft tissue and cartilage repair trends and innovations take center stage.

Joint restoration and preservation continued to gain attention at this year’s Canaccord Genuity (CG) Musculoskeletal (MSK) Healthcare Conference and at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons' (AAOS) 2025 Annual Meeting, both in San Diego. From start-ups reporting early results and seeking investors to large companies showcasing recently acquired assets or newly launched products, the meetings were abuzz with companies and healthcare providers aspiring to help patients heal more naturally, restore an active lifestyle and delay joint replacement surgery.

In this market perspective article, SmartTRAK covers everyone from powerhouse names like Smith+Nephew and Stryker to dynamic start-ups, like CytexOrtho, Nanochon and Hyalex Orthopaedics. Their focus was clear: help the body heal naturally and preserve movement for as long as possible.

Below is a preview of the full article. The complete Market Perspective is available for download.

      

SmartTRAK spotlights Tetrous in an interview at AAOS 2025 in San Diego. 

Andy Carter, Chief Technology Officer and Founder of Tetrous, discusses the company’s novel approach to addressing Enthesis Failure Syndrome in an interview with SmartTRAK at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) 2025 Annual Meeting in San Diego. 

To learn more about Tetrous and its novel technology, listen to the following video. (21:42 min.) A link to download the transcript of the interview is also provided below. 

 

Hey everybody, it's Andy Knapik, live here at AAOS 2025 in San Diego. Today I'm joined here with a friend, colleague, and someone I've known now for, I guess a couple years, Andy Carter, Founder, Chief Technology Officer of a company called Tetrous, which is really some exciting biologic technology. So I just brought him along. We're going to chat a little bit about it. So Andy, why don't you just tell everybody what it is about Tetrous and what you guys do and why it's so great.

Andy Carter: Thanks for the opportunity. It's a great topic to talk about and I really, really love it. So we started Tetrous a couple of years ago. We spun it out of Theracell, the company that we sold to, ISTO Biologics. They're doing great and taking the technology in the spine and doing various things. But along the way, I read quite a few papers about how demineralized bone matrix materials could influence enthesis repair. And that's getting back to sports medicine, which is my roots and well, my real passion. I looked at these papers and they basically showed that demineralized bone matrix materials could influence the enthesis to heal. A tendon, the enthesis, is the bit between the tendon and the bone. It's the junction. It's how you get load transfer between rigid bone and flexible tendon. It's a biological structure that's very exquisite and unique. You look at the histology and the biologists go into raptures and "wows" about it and whatever.

The fundamentals are that you've got collagen fibers going from the bone through into the tendon. That's what gives you the strength. You see them in the histology with Sharpey's fibers. If you just reattach tendon to bone, you just get scar tissue. Scar tissue is not as strong. Basically, it pulls out and thins and fails with time. So part of the reason that we see so many problems with rotator cuff repair is that nobody's doing anything to heal the enthesis. There was this literature out there saying, ‘Hey, you can use DBM for this,’ but none of the papers showed it in any way that was something that you could see a surgeon being able to use-

Right, a practical form.

AC: There's one group, guys I know very well had used DBM powder. Now DBM powder, you can do it in a rat study and show that it works, but that's not a product. So what we were able to do, one of the clever things about the technology that we developed at Theracell, the fiber technology is, it allows us to ....

Click the button below to download and read the complete transcript of SmartTRAK's interview with Andy Carter, founder and CTO of Tetrous, conducted by Andy Knapik, SmartTRAK Senior Analyst, Soft Tissue Fixation and Arthroscopic Enabling Technologies.

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SmartTRAK is the Medtech industry’s only global Insights-as-a-Service solution for the Orthopedics, Wound Care, Regenerative Medicine and Neuro Therapy markets. SmartTRAK’s propriety methodology turns disparate data from hundreds of sources into powerful insights customers can rely on as the trusted source for strategic decision-making. The SmartTRAK enterprise platform includes rich daily updates, comprehensive market coverage and simple-to-use tools and dashboards for market, product and financial analysis. Customers leveraging the SmartTRAK platform also have direct access to market experts for inquiries and advisory services. If you would like a demo of what SmartTRAK has to offer and see how we can help increase proficiency, improve productivity and reduce costs for your company, just click here.

SmartTRAK spotlights Doron Therapeutics in an interview with CEO Alessandra Pavesio at CG 2025 Musculoskeletal Conference in San Diego. 

Alessandra Pavesio, CEO of Doron Therapeutics, discusses the company, recent milestones and MOTYS, the company’s placental-derived injectable therapeutic for osteoarthritis, in an interview with   SmartTRAK  at the Canaccord Genuity (CG) 2025 Musculoskeletal Conference in San Diego, March 10, 2025.

SmartTRAK highlights game-changing trends in orthobiologics for 2025 and beyond.

SmartTRAK highlights trends to watch in 2025 and beyond that will impact the US OrthoBiologics Market, which is projected to achieve a CAGR of 5.1% by 2028E. The OrthoBio Market has made significant strides over the past few years, primarily driven by breakthroughs in new technical approaches, product development and strong commercial execution.

In this downloadable article, SmartTRAK explores the current state of orthobiologic implants, focusing on two key segments, the Cartilage Replacement and Soft Tissue Replacement Markets, including:

• Emerging Biomaterials & Technologies – Products in Play for 2025 and Beyond
  
  • Cartilage Replacement
  • Soft Tissue Replacement
    
    • Soft Tissue Augmentation
    • Knee Ligament Replacement
• Clinical Trial Spotlights – Products on Deck for 2025 and Beyond
  
  • Cartilage
  • Soft Tissue Replacement
    
    • • Soft Tissue Augmentation
      • Knee Ligament Replacement

The article examines, in depth, companies that are in the line-up with clinical trials and the recent technological breakthroughs and regulatory milestones shaping the Orthobiologics market ...

Curious about the latest innovations and trends in the Orthobiologics Market for 2025?  Click the button below to download the complete market outlook article, "Game-Changing Innovations in Orthobiologics for 2025 and Beyond" by SmartTRAK's Emily Meng.

SmartTRAK highlights key takeaways from the 2023 AOSSM Meeting

As the number of patients seeking treatment for musculoskeletal conditions increases, the orthobiologic market continues to grow, resulting in physicians and companies offering more innovative treatment options. At the 2023 American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) Annual Meeting in Washington, biological healing was a hot topic. In this article, SmartTRAKidentifies the latest market developments and innovations that will drive growth in the market for sports medicine-related orthobiologics.

This article is Part Two in a two-part series highlighting the key takeaways from this meeting. To download and read Part One, click Biologics in Musculoskeletal Medicine.

To download Part Two of the series "Biologics in Musculoskeletal Medicine," by Kimberly French, SmartTRAK's GM, Orthobiologics and Regenerative Medicine, just click the button below.

SmartTRAK highlights key takeaways from the 2023 Biologic Association Meeting