Covid-19 continues to spread across the globe, and, like the rest of the world, the MedtTech industry is strategizing the best ways to deal with the pandemic. 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 the analysts at SmartTRAK:

OTA COVID-19 Webinar

• OTA Special Webinar COVID-19: Preparedness in Orthopaedic Trauma OTA Panel Discussion was held 4/2/10. Panel included 9 OTA Trauma surgeons. For a recording of the Webinar, go to: COVID-19: Preparedness in Orthopaedic Trauma OTA Panel Discussion.
• As a result of COVID-19 and stay at home orders, trauma surgeons are seeing a definite decrease in volumes, with polytrauma being almost negligible in certain cities. Geriatric fractures have decreased but to a lesser extent according to the OTA COVID-19 Webinar discussion.
• According to the OTA webinar panel discussions, trauma surgeons are taking resource allocation into consideration when assessing fracture care of the clavicle, humeral shaft or fibula and deciding whether to treat conservatively vs. operate in areas with COVID-19 surges.

COVID-19 Risks to Clinical Trials
The impact of COVID-19 has been immense. This article reviews eight significant risks COVID-19 poses to clinical trials and how to mitigate them.

COVID-19: Projections of Peak and Procedure Returns
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation is now projecting lower overall hospital resource needs in the US and predicts the peak will be April 15. Based on this, WFS estimates elective procedures will be depressed through June.

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

The Biologics Alliance opened their 1st Summit meeting February 5th in Carlsbad CA with a "Think Tank" session of companies developing new products for the treatment of cartilage-related problems and knee OA. The companies appeared before a panel of judges similar to those on Shark Tank, only these judges had a special expertise in orthopedics/OrthoBiologics. BioMedGPS' CEO Sharon O'Reilly and SmartTRAK Senior Analyst, Kim French were among the panel of judges comprised of industry representatives and analysts/press. Samumed was the first place winner for Lorecivivint (SM04690), Bioventus was 2nd place for PTP-001 and Organogenesis in 3rd w/ ReNu.

We are pleased to announce that Stacy Spirito has joined the team at SmartTRAK as Director of Sales. Stacy has spent 14+ years in the medical device and technology industries, most recently as an Account Executive with Gartner, working with Investors.  Prior to that, Stacy was part of a sales team that launched a disruptive new medical device for breast cancer at Mammotome/Leica Biosystems. 

Meet Stacy Spirito:

1. Stacy, what is your role with SmartTRAK? My role at SmartTRAK is Director of Sales. I will be developing and managing the relationship with our clients and ensuring we are providing value and actionable insights to enable them to deliver on their key initiatives.
   
   

Location: Northeast region of US (NY, NJ, MA, PA)

Full-time Position

Position:

BioMedGPS, a leading strategic advisory and healthcare analytics firm serving the life sciences industry, is seeking a Director of Enterprise Sales with extensive healthcare B2B experience for its SmartTRAK Business Intelligence platform and related products. Applicant must reside in the Northeastern region of the USA for easy access to major accounts.

SmartTRAK is the first business intelligence portal that provides real time data, analytics and curated content by a team of industry experts to help medical device executives make more informed strategic decisions. SmartTRAK is utilized by leading medical device companies within the orthopedic, wound care, regenerative medicine and neuro therapeutic areas. The Director of Sales will be responsible for selling SmartTRAK’s suite of business intelligence solutions to C- suite and other senior level executives, as well as building long term strategic programs and relationships at all levels of the enterprise.