Orthopedic surgeon Gary Stewart, MD, recently began leading United Musculoskeletal Partners’ clinical research initiatives across practices in Georgia, Texas and Colorado.
From spine biologics to orthopedic implant materials, UMP’s research efforts will involve partnerships with universities, medtech companies and data analysts.
Dr. Stewart, of Atlanta-based Resurgens Orthopaedics, shared his top research priorities and how partnerships will support his mission.
Note: Responses were lightly edited.
Question: What are your short and long-term goals for this clinical research network?
Dr. Gary Stewart: Our focus is on the best outcomes for our patients and advancing musculoskeletal care. In the short term, we want to identify the areas where we’re already high performing and other areas where we can enhance patient care. In the long term, the goal is to understand how we’re truly helping patients over time and to build durable patient centric benchmarks, with measures that matter the most to our patients and their families. We also want to make sure our patients have an opportunity to be a part of medical innovation and device development, offering clinical trials and research as another clinical option for care. Combined, the UMP practices have hundreds of physicians and APPs who treat millions of patients, and our clinical catchment area spans huge regions of the country. This vast network allows us to use data not only to track outcomes and quality metrics but also to optimize care at every step. Ultimately, it’s about taking better care of our patients and continuously improving the standard of musculoskeletal health. We are well positioned to drive innovation that will help our patients live happier, healthier lives.
Q: How are you evaluating the best fits in partnerships, whether it’s with a device maker, university, or data analyst?
GS: All three — device makers, universities and data analysts — bring unique strengths, and there’s an opportunity for each to play a role. With our network of patients, providers, and data we can help device makers and pharmaceutical companies to bring innovations to market faster. In turn, they can help us evaluate our innovations in implants, biologics, and advancements related to surgical techniques and outcome measurements. Universities and academic partnerships help us add additional rigor as they have advanced research infrastructure, which can help us advance our research vision. Data scientists and analysts can help us expand our understanding of how we can better leverage the enormous amount of information we’re generating. They each have a different perspective and we want to pair that with our extensive clinical expertise. By combining those partnerships, we can maximize the value of our research and translate it into real-world improvements for patients.
Q: What are the most exciting areas of spine and orthopedic research today?
GS: In spine, disc replacement and non-operative treatments are particularly exciting as they hold promise for patients who need options beyond fusion. In orthopedic care, biologics are an area we’re watching closely. We’re also very interested in the evolution of implant materials, such as radiolucent or degradable metals. Imagine placing a screw that provides structural support, safely resorbs after doing its job, and even stimulates bone healing as it degrades. That kind of innovation could fundamentally change how we think about surgery and recovery.
Q: Are there any emerging trends you’re hoping to see grow in 2026?
GS: Our approach is all about our patients. Looking ahead to 2026, I hope to see more support for research that focuses on real-world outcomes such as functional recovery and return to work timelines. Those are the measures that matter most to our patients, and to employers and payors.
Q: How are you strategizing around potential hurdles to spine and orthopedic research, whether it’s federal funding, onsite staffing challenges, etc.?
GS: We’re realistic about the challenges and are aware that federal funding, staffing, and infrastructure are all pressure points. Our strategy is to start lean and pragmatic. This includes better leveraging our clinical systems for research and we have already made investments to drive our strategy. We’ll also rely on synergistic industry partnerships, evaluate targeted grants, and continue to invest our internal resources and support where appropriate. We want to move quickly, by outsourcing highly specialized functions at first, so that we can reduce risk, and keep our focus the careful integration of research into our outstanding care model and sharing our lessons and advancement with our patients and the field broadly, including producing high-quality, publishable data and sharing friendly, understandable information with our patients.
Q: What other healthcare trends are you watching?
GS: One of the most important trends we’re watching is health access. We treat patients from all walks of life, our patients are from rural and urban communities, they are young and old, some have extensive health coverage, others don’t. We want to make sure all patients have access to the same high standard of musculoskeletal care and to cutting-edge science. Alongside that, we’re very focused on maintaining best-in-class quality. The healthcare landscape is shifting toward value-based care, and research that validates quality across all patient populations is going to be essential. This is about helping our patients live healthier happier lives.
