Sports Medicine: The New Playing Field

Article preview from Medtech Insight - October 01, 2010

Sports medicine is one segment of the device industry that may fare well in the post-health care reform world. New treatments aimed at preserving joint structures may protect young athletes from more invasive procedures down the road.

Sports Medicine: The New Playing Field

Article preview from Medtech Insight - October 01, 2010

Already the foreboding signs of health care reform, fueled in part by a shaky economy, are starting to bear down on the orthopedic industry as implant prices fall and procedure growth slows in two of the largest segments: total joints and spine surgery. As payors raise the coverage bar by initiating preauthorization requirements for operations to treat chronic joint and back pain, delays in surgical treatment are likely to become the norm, leaving patients no choice but to pursue conservative measures and live with their pain. However, one segment of the industry that may fare well in a post reform world is sports medicine, where injuries are acute, intervention is early, and new treatments aimed at preserving joint structures may help safeguard a young athlete from becoming a future candidate for more invasive procedures such as joint replacement.

At the annual meeting of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM), held in Providence, RI, in July, it was clear what direction many companies in the industry are heading. Most are moving the focus of their sports medicine businesses away from capital equipment to procedure-specific products for repairing and replacing joint structures. New technologies aimed at protecting the joint from undergoing degenerative changes that lead to an early onset of osteoarthritis is where the action is in orthopedics for the time to come.

Many players seeking to expand their sports medicine product line are doing so by acquisition. For example, ArthroCare Corp.'s sports medicine business took off after the company's acquisition of Opus Medical Inc. in 2004, and Stryker Corp. bought privately held Ross Creek Medical Inc. in 2008; both start-ups were developers of arthroscopic fixation devices for rotator cuff repair. [200410201] Even established imaging equipment manufacturer Karl Storz GMBH & Co. is getting into the game by branching into the suture anchor market. With a market pegged around $1.1 billion in the US alone, it should come as no surprise that companies are searching for new and innovative techniques and technologies for repairing and reconstructing damaged tendons, ligaments, meniscus, cartilage, and other soft tissue structures as a way to get onto the sports medicine playing field.

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