The Best Spine Technologies of 2009

The Best Spine Technologies of 2009 were officially christened on November 9^th during a spectacular gala awards banquet at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. The Spine Industry’s big event under the soaring chandeliers celebrated innovation, engineering and a relentless drive to improve spine care for patients and those who care for them. 

Eighty-three technologies were submitted in eight categories and twenty-six inventors took home the massive crystal award. The voting by 34 surgeon judges was live and when the dust settled, a weary but elated group of 200 had participated in the selection and celebration of this year’s winners. 

Three companies were dual winners. Pioneer Surgical Technology won for both nanOSS Cervical and NuNec Artificial Cervical Disc. Alphatec Spine won for both the OsseoScrew Expandable Screw and the GLIF- Guided Lateral Interbody Fusion device. NuVasive won for the XLIF and the PCM.

SURPRISES

There were several surprising picks. The judges chose to recognize three obscure technologies—the Bionic Spacer from the Israeli firm Spine21, the as yet un-named biomaterial from a consortium of the Aston, Oxford and Keele Universities in the UK and the “bonewelding” technology from the Swiss firm, WW [WoodWelding] Technology. 

Spine 21’s Bionic Spacer is a POST OPERATIVE adjustable interspinous process device which distracts and thereby expands the disc space via radio control. Imagine real-time distraction with patient feedback.  “A little higher, doc. Yes, that’s the ticket. Feels much better.” This would bring “spine adjustments” into the surgeon’s office.

Three UK universities, Aston, Oxford and Keele, collaborated on the winning and as yet un-named biomimetic hydrogel material. This technology is being targeted at several spine and non-spine indications.  For spine repair, the inventors think that the material will work well as a nucleus prosthesis to restore intervertebral disc height. This would be particularly useful for patients with severe disc degeneration. According to the inventors, the material has matching properties to those of the patient’s native tissue.

The Swiss firm, WW Technology, submitted bonewelding for the spine. Bonewelding technology anchors implants into bone using ultrasonic energy.  During implantation, the energy liquefies the polymer coating and creates an immediate and extremely strong bonding with the bone.

Then on the other end of the spectrum, the surgeon judges selected technologies that are so widely used, that, frankly, we thought they wouldn’t be judged as innovative.

The judges were asked to evaluate each technology according to six criteria:

1. Is the technology creative and innovative?
2. Does the technology have long term significance?
3. Does the technology solve a current clinical problem?
4. Does the technology have the potential to improve standard of care?
5. Would you use it?
6. Is it cost effective?

Based on those criteria, the judges selected the following widely used and, yes, creative and significant technologies:

• Invibio’s PEEK-OPTIMA material
• L.I.T.’s ONE HEADLIT
• NuVasive’s XLIF
• K2M’s SERENGHETI MIS system

Invibio’s material was used in a fair number of the submitted technologies and a high percentage of the winning technologies. No question about it, surgeons like PEEK-OPTIMA.

L.I.T’s cordless, battery powered head lamp for surgeons may not require a PMA, but it clearly struck a responsive chord among surgeons. The fact that a head lamp would share the stage with such high end products as the Stabilimax, the M6 or Facet Solution’s ACADIA is testament to the importance of basic tools.

Finally, NuVasive and K2M have been wildly successful innovators in the market place with such MIS (minimally invasive surgery) systems as the XLIF and SERENGHETTI. But commercial success did not prevent the Spine Award judges from recognizing true clinical problem solving when they saw it.

In the Biomaterials category, Covidien’s recently approved DuraSeal spine sealant system received the judge’s award. In Diagnostics and Imaging, two technologies stood out—Nemaris’ Surgimap software system and Ortho Kinematics’ Vertebral Motion Analyzer (VMA). Both offer spine surgeons important new tools. Importantly, Nemaris’ system is free. It is an imaging processing software that handles all types of files and even goes so far as to simulate procedures. Ortho Kinematics’ VMA system delivers motion diagnostics—which outperforms the current end-stage X-ray methodologies.

Every one of the Best Spine Technologies of 2009 was the result of thousands of hours of intense effort and achievement. No hyperbole—it was an honor to highlight all 83 of the submitted technologies and the hundreds of engineers, inventors and surgeons who contribute to what is the best in the Spinal Implant and Instrument industry.

Here are the BEST SPINE TECHNOLOGIES OF 2009!