VISIE CEO Doug Fairbanks discusses the company’s 3D scanning technologies and its vision for the future of enabling technology in orthopedics in an interview with SmartTRAK.

At this year’s American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) 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. Medtech startup VISIE rose to the top to win the event out of forty applicants. VISIE’s optical scanning technology uses white and infrared light, provides non-invasive ‘snap’ registration in under a second, and can be used with or without CT to drive surgical robotic arm positioning without tracking arrays. Doug Fairbanks, CEO of VISIE, discussed the company and its goal to introduce pinless tracking for orthopedic procedures in a recent interview with SmartTRAK.

To find out more, listen to the following video (18:18 min). Below is a link to download the complete transcript of the interview. 

 

SmartTRAK: Hi, this is Elise Wolf, VP and GM of Orthopedics and Enabling Technology at SmartTRAK. Today, I'm speaking with Doug Fairbanks, CEO of VISIE. Welcome, Doug. And I want to start out by congratulating you and the entire VISIE team for winning this year's AAOS OrthoPitch event.

Doug Fairbanks: Hi. Thank you, Elise. Thank you for having me. And we're all excited.

It's no small feat. I think it was 40 applicants vying for a spot to pitch their company and technology at the finals. And then you were up against three other companies in the finals, 16 BIT, Auctus Surgical and SentryX to be crowned this year's winner. I'm really excited to share with our subscribers a little bit more about VISIE and your vision for the company. So why don't you give a little background about yourself and about the company?

DF: Thank you. First of all, that was a really remarkable competition for us, and the competition was really stiff, right? We talked to a lot of folks in a lot of places, and it's rare that we run up against competition that I think is so profound and so talented, and delivers so much value for patients in the future. So we were very pleased to be the top on that day and we're excited for the recognition of the company. My name's Doug Fairbanks. I'm the president and CEO of VISIE, formerly Advanced Scanners. I've been in orthopedics for about 15 years. I spent the entirety of my career kind of at the intersection of technology, the OR and commercialization.

I've had the pleasure of working in a lot of different roles with a bunch of different companies. Zimmer, DePuy, I worked at Brainlab in the orthopedics unit for a while, and was really close to how technology integrates with patients. And I'm excited that when I saw what Advanced Scanners was doing at the time, I stopped dead in my tracks. I turned to my wife and I said, ‘I have to go there. I have to go work at that company. That is something special. That is something that's going to change the world.’ And here I am a little over two and a half years later and the company is doing remarkable things. I feel bad that I get to stand in front of everybody and take credit and say we're great. But there's a bunch of really remarkable, very intelligent people who work in the office here, who show up every day and push to the very edge of what is scientifically possible for the benefit of patients and surgeons.

I love it. I think what you're doing is really a paradigm shift in the enabling technology space. So could you describe a little bit about what is the technology with the 3D scanners and what really you're aiming to do, and how you're looking to change the landscape?

DF: When I think about the challenges of the OR, we really have to think as a startup, are we locked onto a problem? Do we see that there's an opportunity to do better? And years ago, I asked myself, ‘Hey, are computers and technology going to be more or less part of our lives going forward?’

I think surgeons are asking themselves the same question, ‘How do I use the benefits or utilize all that computing has to offer, while still integrating into my practice and treating patients in the only way that surgeons can do?’

So when we looked at the problem of robotics, navigation and AR-VR, we realized that ...

Allumin8 CEO Alyssa Huffman discusses the company's novel therapeutic hardware during an interview with SmartTRAK at the 2025 NASS Biologic Interventions.

Click the button below to download the complete transcript of our interview with Allumin8 CEO Alyssa Huffman, conducted by Erin Dorgan, SmartTRAK Senior Analyst.

Click the button below to download the complete transcript of our interview with Brad Estes, CEO of CytexOrtho, conducted by  SmartTRAK analyst Emily Meng.

SmartTRAK discusses key products and compelling clinical evidence that may impact the Bone Replacement Market in 2025 and beyond.

SmartTRAK looks at what’s on the horizon in 2025 and beyond and highlights the innovation and product advances that could shake up the US Market for Bone Replacement, which is projected to reach a 5-year CAGR of +3.8% by 2028. In this article, SmartTRAK details the recent growth factors/peptides bone grafts that received the FDA’s Breakthrough Device Designation (BDD) and significant milestones in product development in 2024. It also discusses new clinical evidence challenging the belief that autologous bone is the most efficacious graft material.

Curious which companies and products are making waves? This downloadable market outlook article covers, among others:

• Cerapedics' investigational P-15 Peptide Enhanced Bone Graft
• Medtronic’s Infuse bone graft
• Theradaptive's OsteoAdapt SP bone graft
• Bone Biologics' NB1 bone graft
• Locate Bio's LDGraft bone graft 
• Renovos' Renovite BMP-2 bone graft 
• CBBio's NOVOSIS Putty
• Amphix Bio's  drug-device combination product for bone regeneration
• Kuros Biosciences' MagnetOs Granules bone graft

With new growth factor/peptides bone grafts progressing with their timelines to the market and clinical data demonstrating superiority over autograft, the Bone Replacement market is primed to grow in 2025 and the coming years.

Click the button below to download and read the complete "Clinical Evidence Poised to Redefine the Bone Replacement Market in 2025 and Beyond" Market Outlook article by SmartTRAK Erin Dorgan, Sr Analyst.

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 delves into recent spinal implant divestitures.

The global Spinal Implant Market has seen an increasing number of divestitures in recent years. Large strategics are streamlining their portfolios, while private equity firms and specialized manufacturers are capitalizing on the opportunity to acquire divested assets. In this article, SmartTRAK explores the key drivers behind these divestitures, notable transactions and the broader implications for the industry, including:

• Recent Divestitures from Key Players
  • In January, Stryker (SYK) announced a definitive agreement to sell its US spinal implants business to the Viscogliosi Brothers (VB), a New York-based investment firm focused on neuro and musculoskeletal technologies. VB Spine is set to become ... (read more)
• Why the Shake-ups? 
  • The Spine Hardware Market is characterized as a very SKU-heavy business with little differentiation among implants, making it expensive and requiring savvy and specialized operations to ensure profitability. Market-leading strategics, Medtronic (MDT) and Globus (GMED) are acquiring ... (read more)
• Focus on Interventional Market
  • With ZBH and SYK exiting the spinal fusion space altogether, other companies are targeting adjacent high-growth markets, where there is a much larger population of chronic low back pain (CLBP) patients to treat in lieu of fusion. Post divestiture, SYK will retain ... (read more)
• Continued Evolution Expected
  • Consolidation and specialization in the Spine Market could lead to improved product quality, better integration of new technologies and enhanced patient outcomes. SmartTRAK expects the Spine Market 
    will ...(read more)
    
    

Curious about the latest transactions and trends in the Spine Market and the broader implications for the industry? Click the button below to download the complete market outlook article, "Spine Market Shake-Up: Trends, Drivers and What’s Next" by Elise Wolf, SmartTRAK VP& GM, Orthopedics & Quality.

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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.