Don't get me wrong. I love the orthopedic industry. One of the best careers one could possible have in medical devices. We are making a difference helping people every day.
However, we have many issues. We need some new companies to fix orthopedics.
Below are a few issues I can think of:
1/Clinical data is not available for the hundreds of new ortho and spine and bio products launched each year.
2/The devices with great long term data (eg: original medial pivot total knee) are no longer commercially available to surgeons/patients (what ?).
3/True device revision rates don't show up in the data. Device revisions are not highlighted at conferences because surgeons like to talk about their "wins". Revision patients often defect to another surgeon for their 2nd or 3rd procedure. 150,000 knee revisions done every year in the US. 15% of US total knee cases are revisions (what?).
4/Sales are driven by relationships or volume contracts or robot contracts. Sales are not driven by better product offerings.
5/There is not enough "original thinking" in ortho because of the cross-pollination and churn of the same people (read about true innovation here.)
6/30% of t...
