Emerging from the COVID-19 era, wound care innovation is driven by smaller companies

In April, the Symposium on Advanced Wound Care (SAWC) Spring 2022 returned to an in-person format for the first time since 2019. Though the turnout was below expectations, attendees enjoyed reconnecting with clinicians, engaging with vendors and catching up with colleagues and competitors.

Despite being three years since the last SAWC Spring, large wound care companies like Smith+Nephew* (SNN), Mölnlycke*, 3M* and others were oddly without major product introductions. SmartTRAK has learned that extended FDA review timelines and supply challenges may be playing a significant role in this reality. Companies have publicly commented that innovation and new product launches are planned for 2022, but timelines must have slipped past the SAWC Spring deadlines.

Regardless, innovation was not completely absent from SAWC Spring as smaller companies introduced new products and more companies exhibited IT-driven diagnostic, measurement and data-capture technologies.

(The SmartTRAK team will be attending the upcoming European Wound Management Association (EWMA) event May 23-25 in Paris. We would love to schedule some time to meet and hear your perspectives and views and discuss how SmartTRAK can help you make more informed strategic business decisions.)

In this article, SmartTRAK highlights new products and novel technologies exhibited at SAWC Spring 2022.

Increased wound prevalence meets new software and solutions at WCT 2022.

There was a positive energy in the room at the 5^th Wound Care Today (WCT) conference as industry and clinicians came together in Milton Keynes. COVID-19 infection rates remain high in the UK but this is not being reflected in hospitalizations or deaths, leading to a national determination to move forward without restrictions. The pandemic has, however, shaped the priorities of those present and in a range of discussions. SmartTRAK encountered a commercial eagerness to make up for lost time and a looming burden of chronic wounds.

The SmartTRAK team will be attending the upcoming European Wound Management Association (EWMA) event May 23-25 in Paris. We would love to schedule some time to meet and hear your perspectives and views and discuss how SmartTRAK can help you make more informed strategic business decisions.

Jason Winkler, Sales VP of cybersecurity startup Device Authority, discusses the state of cybersecurity in healthcare in an interview with SmartTRAK.

To find out more, including the devices most vulnerable to cybersecurity threats and how medical device manufacturers should think about designing cybersecurity measures into their connected products, click on the following video to listen to the full interview (17:29 min). A link to download the complete transcript of the interview is also provided below.

Macroeconomic headwinds are projected to continue through the first half of 2022.

Supply chain headaches and inflationary pressures significantly impacted wound care companies in 2021. Though Advanced Wound Care revenue rebounded +11.5% in 2021 according to SmartTRAK’s Financial Dashboard, it was not without strong headwinds of higher input costs, logistical nightmares and labor shortages.

To understand how these macroeconomic trends affected wound care companies, SmartTRAK reviewed quarterly and fiscal year earnings reports from FY21 to see how various wound care companies reported the company-specific impact. From troubles sourcing materials to higher input costs and the need to raise prices, SmartTRAK uncovered a consistent trend of macroeconomic pressures affecting many global and regional wound care manufacturers.

New Products:

• Cardinal Health* 
  

  Cardinal Health announced the launch of the first surgical incise drape using Chlorhexidine Gluconate (CHG). The drape features Avery Dennison's patented BeneHold CHG adhesive technology, which helps reduce the risk of surgical site contamination w/ organisms associated w/ SSIs.

• Coloplast*

  Coloplast is gradually launching Alprep Pad in select markets. Now available in the UK, Australia and New Zeeland. Alprep Pad is a foam for mechanical cleansing and debridement of wounds.

Scott Laster, CEO and co-founder of MiCare Path, discusses the present and future of monitoring patients between office visits in an interview with SmartTRAK

Scott Laster is the CEO and co-founder of MiCare Path, a leading platform to connect patients with their providers between visits. Scott is a medical device industry veteran with 15+ years of experience in the trenches launching products and supporting clinicians. In this interview with SmartTRAK, Scott shares his thoughts on the benefits of monitoring patients between office visits, the evolution of reimbursement of remote monitoring and where MiCare Path is going in the future.

To find out more, including Scott’s take on how MiCare Path benefits orthopedic and wound care patients and clinicians, click on the following video recorded live via Google Meet (17:04 min). Specific interview topics by timecode are outlined below. To download a complete transcript of the interview, click here.

SmartTRAK examines recent trends in breast implants and discusses their future impact on breast matrices.

Breast matrices, whether acellular dermal matrices (ADMs) or biosynthetics, have enabled improved outcomes in implant-based breast reconstruction and have contributed, in large part, to the revival of the prepectoral breast reconstruction technique. As the number of breast implant procedures has grown, so has the use of breast matrices. However, SmartTRAK believes the side effects and health consequences now associated with breast implants, while rare, will negatively impact breast implant usage and thus reduce the growth rate of breast matrices in 2022 and beyond.

In this informative Outlook article by Doug Devens, SmartTRAK's Product Director and Senior Editor, Wound, Doug covers:

• The Relationship between Breast Surgery and ADM Usage
• Trends in Implant Usage
• Recent Concerns that May Affect Breast Implant Usage
• The Future Outlook for 2022 and Beyond

Kathleen “Kathy” Schaum, President of Kathleen D. Schaum & Associates, discusses her thoughts on the impact of COVID-19 on wound care and reimbursement.

Kathy is a “go-to” provider of wound care reimbursement information, education and strategy to manufacturers and providers. In this interview with SmartTRAK, Kathy shares her thoughts on the impact of COVID-19 on the delivery and reimbursement of wound care and the advancements in remote monitoring, diagnostics and sensors. To find out more, including Kathy’s take on skin substitute/CTP trends, click on the following video recorded live via Google Meet (25:13 min). Specific interview topics by time code are outlined below. A link to the complete transcript of the interview is also provided below.

Procedures using surgical matrices continued their recovery and companies have resumed investing, with revenues surpassing their Q419 levels. 

As the pandemic wanes and procedures are again being scheduled, the US Surgical Matrices market grew strongly in Q421, gaining +12.7% YoY according to the SmartTRAK Financial Dashboard. AbbVie continued to lead the Surgical Matrices market, with Becton Dickinson also growing well ...

Among the many topics covered in detail in our comprehensive Q421 US Surgical Matrices Market Recap* are:

SmartTRAK highlights current and emerging trends in hernia outcomes research presented at the European Hernia Society – Americas Hernia Society Joint Congress held in Copenhagen.

by Doug Devens - Sr Analyst, Biosurgery, IT Product Director

Changes in hernia regulations and evolving views on how to study the performance of hernia matrices have fueled a growing interest among hernia researchers in using different methods and data sources to measure outcomes associated with these devices. In this article, SmartTRAK highlights current and emerging trends in hernia outcomes research presented at the European Hernia Society – Americas Hernia Society Joint Congress (Hernia2021), in Copenhagen, including the increasing use of registries and their relative advantages and disadvantages compared to the gold standard randomized controlled trial (RCT). ­