The Ten Best New Spine Technologies of 2012 (Orthopedics This Week)
are Biomet, Inc., ISTO Technologies, Inc., Medtronic Spine and Biologics, Mighty Oak Medical, NuVasive, Inc., Safewire, LLC, Society for Minimally Invasive Surgery (SMISS) and TransCorp Spine.
A record number of companies submitted their new technologies for review. Not only were the odds of winning longer this year, but our esteemed panel of judges was particularly picky. High scores were few and far between. Still, a few new technologies did catch these discriminating surgeons’ attention. And were there any patterns? Yes:
Size doesn’t matter. Both Medtronic, the largest firm in spine, and Mighty Oak Medical, possibly the smallest firm in spine, were winners.
Biomet, Biomet, Biomet. For the first time ever, one company won three awards. And it was Biomet. It is very difficult to win even one award. Three is off the charts. Apparently Biomet launched a new product development program three or four years ago. Whoever got this going deserves a raise and a promotion.
Biologics rule. Two thirds of the biologics submissions won.
The Orthopedics This Week Spine Technology Award is meant to reward inventors, engineerin...
