Spinal technology inventors awarded for innovations

The journal Orthopedics This Week has presented 10 companies with its 2011 Best New Technology for Spine award. The winning entrants received the honors at the annual meeting of the North American Spine Society in Chicago earlier this month.

Among the winners are:

  • NeuroLogica, recognized for its BodyTom, a battery powered, portable CT scanner;
  • Aesculap, for its Hydrolift vertebral body-replacement system, which uses hydrostatic pressure to expand and maintain distraction of the disc space during surgery; and
  • Thompson MIS, for its BoneBac press, which recycles bone collected from the surgical site.

Also taking home trophies were Advanced Biologics, AlloSource, CoAlign Innovations, Ellipse Technologies, NLT Spine, Nocimed and the Society for Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery.

The annual award recognizes inventors, engineering teams, surgeons and their companies who have created “the most innovative, enduring and practical” products to treat back pain, according to Orthopedics This Week.

“We and our panel of surgeon [judges] were impressed that inventors—despite ever-growing hurdles to innovation and entrepreneurism in spine—still managed to create a solid group of new products to submit” for 2011, reported the journal. The field of entrants from which the winners were selected was not described.

For more on the winning innovations, click here.

Dave Pearson

Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.

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