The year ahead: 5 spine surgeons discuss key trends driving the industry

Spine

Here five spine surgeons predict important trends in spine care and delivery in 2016.

Ask a Spine Surgeon is a weekly series of questions posed to spine surgeons around the country about clinical, business and policy issues affecting spine care. We invite all spine surgeon and specialist responses.


 
Next week's question: What are your professional goals in the coming year?


 
Please send responses to Anuja Vaidya at avaidya@beckershealthcare.com by Wednesday, Feb. 17, at 5 p.m. CST.

 

Question: What are some key trends we can expect to see in the spine industry in 2016?

 

William Taylor, MD, Director, Spine Surgery, Vice Chairman, Division of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Diego: Continued consolidation will play a larger role in care delivery. Centers of Excellence will become essential for high quality innovative care.

 

Christian G. Zimmerman, MD, MBA, Saint Alphonsus Medical Group, SAHS Neuroscience Institute, Boise, Idaho: A not-so-unusual course of reminders continue to permeate the lives of uncertainty for physicians this election year. Cost containment and consolidation drive the spinal implant business as pharmaceuticals continue to come under the gun and the microscope for price augmentation. M&A fits the task for some larger companies to temporize small competitors, but the irregular scrutiny by insurers grows long in the tooth for all. Physician burnout is now front-and-center as the true balances in life become more meaningful and better realized. Specialty medicine is a privilege and, at the same time, a commodity. For this surgeon, that balance provides job satisfaction in any profession.

 

Brian R. Gantwerker, MD, The Craniospinal Center of Los Angeles: This year, I think we will see more changes in our CPT codes in an effort to squeeze more dollars back into the system. I would ask my colleagues to push back against this as it goes back to the devaluation of what we do. Additionally, seeing the trend towards deformity correction and endoscopic spine surgery we can expect more innovations and widespread adoption and, of course, market demand for those skill sets. I would not, however, expect to get paid more for increasingly complex procedures and better patient outcomes.

 

Andrew Casden, MD, Associate Professor of Orthopedics, Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York: I think spine surgery will continue to evolve rapidly in 2016.  As navigation systems and intraoperative CT scans improve, the use of these modalities will certainly increase. Intraoperative scanning of instrumentation will increase as image clarity is improving and getting closer to regular CT scanners. Minimally invasive spine surgery will continue to expand as the indications and technology are expanding quickly. Young surgeons are pushing the envelope of minimally invasive surgery and its role in spine surgery still being defined.  Biologics for fusion is another area of growth and we may expect to see new products available for fusion technology."

 

Samuel Cho, Associate Professor of Orthopedics, Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery, Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York: I think there are several exciting developments that are coming our way in the spine world in 2016. Minimally invasive surgery continues to evolve with better imaging and instrumentation. We still need to work out the details of whether MIS can achieve the same goals as conventional open procedures, but I remain optimistic that we can get there in the next few years. Biologic bone graft substitutes continue to receive attention. We need more osteoinductive options than rhBMP-2 and several companies are working on this. Outcomes and cost-effective studies are important to prove and justify the value of spine surgery to the payers, the government and, most importantly, to our patients.

 

Copyright © 2024 Becker's Healthcare. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy. Cookie Policy. Linking and Reprinting Policy.

 

Featured Webinars

Featured Podcast

Featured Whitepapers