Hey OTW, Why All the Clinical Marketing?

Recently Orthopedics This Week published Part 2 of their three part series on motion preservation. The point of this series is two fold, to address whether there really is a middle of the road between Disc Arthroplasty and Fusion, and, to pump up the marketing volume on this potential emerging technology. It's obvious that based on the amount of investor capital, this product segment is not going away. The question needs to be asked, is the industry looking for a panacea where one does not exist? The problem that I see with the Stabilimaxx NZ is that it is quite expensive to manufacture and that will cut into the margins when it comes time to commercially market this product.

Yet, I must admit, when one listens to Panajabi, Goel, and the rest of the cast of characters, it makes sense. There are still many questions that remain to be answered especially when it comes to the long-term stability of pedicle screw based systems and the Center of Rotation as it pertains to each individual patient. There have been many alternatives discussed at many of the meetings that the Blogger has attended. Those range from HA coated to Ceramic coated pedicle screws. Yet, school is still out on whether these types of designs will be efficacious in what would be asked of them. Until further testing is performed on these types of screws, it is pure conjecture on any designers part.

In closing, the Blogger must ask one question of the writers at OTW, why the McAfee publicity piece for the Globus Medical Transition System? You take a great article, and taint it with clinical marketing. Oops! I forgot, you have to keep your customers happy. Before any of these articles quote surgeons or medical advisors, it should be explicitly stated that the contributing surgeon is a "paid mouth piece" or consultant for Globus. Outside of that, we look forward to the third part of this series.