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 highlights key trends and happenings in sports medicine and arthroscopy at AAOS 2024.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) convened this year in San Francisco, California, from February 12-16. Following several years of subdued participation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, last year's strong showing at AAOS in Las Vegas fostered expectations for a continuation of momentum this year. Despite lower-than-projected attendance from medical professionals, the event featured a robust presence of large and small companies presenting their products and services. So, what was the buzz at the meeting?

In this Perspective article, which can be downloaded here, SmartTRAK highlights key takeaways from AAOS for companies competing in the Sports Medicine Market, including the following topics:

• Continued Interest in Biologic-driven Soft Tissue Fixation
  Companies are still helping drive soft tissue fixation sales through the use of biologics, which now are key advancements in technology at the forefront of sports medicine surgical procedures. Smith+Nephew continues to drive its Sports Medicine business with ... (read more)
  
  
• Ongoing Focus on the ASC Market
  Companies at AAOS had a prominent focus on the Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) Market. According to the SmartTRAK US Ortho ASC Market Overview, as of 2022, there were over ... (read more)
  
  
• Developments in Arthroscopic Technologies
  Another common theme on display across the AAOS 2024 exhibit floor was the showcasing of surgical video technologies. All the big players in sports medicine had their video systems on display, and some notable systems stood out. Stryker highlighted its newest ... (read more)

To download and read the complete "Highlights in Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy from AAOS 2024" Perspective article by Andy Knapik, SmartTRAK Senior Analyst, Soft Tissue Fixation and Arthroscopic Enabling Technologies, just click the button below.

Orahn Preiss-Bloom, founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Ossio Ltd. discusses Osssio’s advancements in innovations in the world of bio-integrative fixation devices.

In an interview with SmartTRAK, Orahn Preiss-Bloom, the founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Ossio Ltd, discusses how Ossio came to be, what makes their products different and where he sees the Company going in the future.

To find out more about Ossio, click on the following video to watch the interview (24:42 min). To download a complete transcript of the interview, click here. For more details, interview topics by timecode are provided below.

Interview Topics By Timecode

00:44 Orahn’s background in the medical industry.
03:53 What differentiates the OSSIO product.
07:55 Initial uses for OSSIOfiber.
12:40 Overcoming surgeon objections to biointegrative materials.
15:13 Ossio education labs.
19:44 Ossio in sports medicine.
22:41 Surgeon concerns.

To download the complete transcript of the interview with Orahn Preiss-Bloom, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Ossio Ltd, just click the button below.

SmartTRAK highlights new products and company strategies for penetrating the ASC market at OSET 2022

The Orthopedic Summit Meeting (OSET) found itself in a new location and time this year as meeting organizers moved a long-time December meeting in Vegas to fall in Boston at the Encore Hotel and Casino. The overall mood of the meeting was positive and seemingly well attended, however, it seems that the change of venue and time of year may have negatively affected overall attendance versus past years. 

All the regular players from a company perspective were in attendance, some showcasing new products and others looking to demonstrate procedural prowess as everyone looks to strengthen their foothold on the hot ambulatory surgery center (ASC) market.   

New Product Introductions: Biologics-Backed Fixation Takes Center Stage