With the recent announcement that 3M is spinning off its Health Care division, SmartTRAK looks back at the evolution of 3M Health Care, its businesses today, the entry into Advanced Wound Care (AWC) and potential new opportunities for the new Health Care business.

3M, a large, diversified company with annual sales of $35.4B in 2021 announced earlier this year plans to spin-off its Health Care business into a new public company. Today, 3M markets thousands of products through four business groups: Safety and Industrial, Transportation and Electronics, Health Care and Consumer. Post-spin-off, 3M will continue as a leading global material science innovator, while the new stand-alone business will seek to become a global diversified healthcare company focused on wound care, healthcare IT, oral care and biopharma filtration.


Among the many topics covered in this fascinating article are:

The potential of US reimbursement changes to Skin Substitutes weighed heavily on companies at SAWC Fall, yet subsequently, CMS decided to delay finalizing its proposed changes.

The Symposium on Advanced Wound Care (SAWC) Fall 2022 gathered for another year in Las Vegas. The exhibit hall was filled with most wound care manufacturers and though booth hours were short, the clinical attendees made the best of their time searching out the latest in wound care technologies.

In this article, SmartTRAK discusses:

• Alternative Product Developments to the Skin Substitute Market 
• Potential Impact of Proposed Reimbursement Changes
• The Top Four Companies by Revenue 
• CMS' Proposed Terminology Change from “Skin Substitute”
• Packaging Skin Substitutes as “Incident to” Supplies

Our expert analysts focus in on the latest advancements, key trends and takeaways from the Orthopedic Trauma Association (OTA) meeting in Tampa, Florida held October 12–15, 2022. Major trauma manufacturers showcased innovation through new product introductions.

Sofia Heddson Fransén, Essity’s Global Solution Owner, Intelligent Medical Solutions discusses the Company’s recent digital app launch as well as current and future trends in the digital field in an interview with SmartTRAK at SAWC Fall 2022.

Digital healthcare plays an increasingly important role in healthcare today. In the face of global concerns related to epidemics and pandemics, high costs and the effects of staff shortages, digital health-related technology continues to grow in importance and evolve. A broad scope of stakeholders are involved in the digital health field, including patients, practitioners, application developers and medical device manufacturers and distributors.

To find out more about Essity and the Company’s initiatives around digital solutions in wound care, click the video below to listen to the interview in which Sofia Heddson Fransén, Essity’s Global Solution Owner, Intelligent Medical Solutions, discusses the Company’s recent digital app launch and what the current and future trends in the digital field (05.33 min) are. A link to download the complete interview transcript is also provided below.

Dr. Kim outlines his extensive experience in adopting endoscopic spine surgery and reflects on barriers to widespread adoption, including the learning curve and reimbursement challenges

Endoscopic and arthroscopic technology has been around for a number of years, aiding surgeons’ visualization to treat patients in much less invasive ways than were previously possible. Prior to the introduction and adoption of these types of technology, surgeons were faced with invasive, more traumatic procedures and sometimes limitations on visualization based on anatomy. Less invasive approaches have allowed patients to benefit from less risk, shorter hospital stays and, in many cases, quicker healing.

Endoscopic approaches to spine surgery have been taking place for 10+ years, but the market hasn’t experienced transformative growth. All the patient benefits align with relative adoption trends, so why haven’t we seen endoscopic spine surgery grow at a similar rate? What does the future look like in this segment? SmartTRAKsat down with minimally invasive spine surgery pioneer Choll Kim, MD, PhD to explore his thoughts on focusing his minimally invasive surgical practice around specific offering of endoscopic spinal techniques, what the pros and cons have been within the adoption curve of the technology and where he thinks the market is headed.

SmartTRAK's spine experts will be roaming the floor at NASS 2022, bringing our subscribers real-time news direct from the show. We'll also be on the show floor at booth #2341, ready to answer your questions, share insights on the latest news and innovations in the Spine Market and discuss how SmartTRAK can help you Be the Expert in your market.  If you would like to book a meeting with us at NASS, please click here.

Continue reading to find out how to download a complete transcript of SmartTRAK's interview with Dr. Kim.

SmartTRAK highlights key movements in the quickly changing landscape of interventional pain management and identifies practice trends surrounding SCS, PNS, minimally invasive spine and SI Joint Fusion from the recent ASPN and INS meetings.

Strong demand for alternatives to narcotic pain management combined with an aging population and growing incidence of chronic pain continue to drive demand for interventional pain techniques. The approach to the treatment of chronic intractable pain is evolving, with a shift toward data-focused treatment optimization, growing use of digital monitoring and holistic evaluation of patient outcomes. Furthermore, increasing overlap among various devices and therapies as well as unclear boundaries between interventional pain, orthopedic and spine practices is spurring physicians to adopt collaborative approaches to patient care.

Among the many timely topics covered in this comprehensive Market Outlook article "Pain Intervention: A Market of Moving Targets", which can be downloaded in its entirety here, are:

Adam Hattan, VP of Marketing for Route 92 Medical, discusses the Company, its novel system for mechanical thrombectomy and competing in the market for stroke interventions in an interview with SmartTRAK at SNIS 2022.

Amid a growing number of me-too devices, one company that is differentiating itself in the market for stroke thrombectomy is Route 92 Medical (R92). Adam Hattan, R92’s vice president of marketing, discusses R92’s novel system for mechanical thrombectomy and competing in the market for stroke interventions in an interview with SmartTRAK at the Society of Neurointerventional Surgery (SNIS) 19th Annual Meeting held in Toronto, Canada July 25-29, 2022.

To find out more about R92, its Monopoint operating platform and the Company’s strategies for growth, click on the following video recorded live at SNIS 2022.  (10:13 min). A link to download a transcript of the interview is also provided below.

Improved aspiration systems, large-bore catheters, balloon-guide catheters and radial access top the list of neurovascular device trends that will continue in 2022.

In the market for mechanical thrombectomy devices, the pace of innovation shows no signs of slowing down in 2022. Manufacturers are designing neurointerventional devices with an eye toward improving first-pass effect, recanalization rates and reducing procedure times to ultimately improve patient outcomes In this article, SmartTRAK highlights recent trends in neurovascular technologies, including variable pressure aspiration systems, large-bore catheters (LBCs), balloon-guide catheters (BGCs) and radial access, as key areas of innovation moving into 2022.

Along with the recent trends in neurovascular technologies, the following topics are covered in detail in this article, which is available for download here:

• Outgrowing Standard Aspiration Systems
• Continued Trend Toward Large-Bore Catheters for Access and Aspiration
• New Designs and Applications for Balloon-Guide Catheters
• Increasing Competition in Radial Access