Increasing concerns over the cost and efficacy of spinal procedures have chilled VC interest in spine companies, once the hot growth area in orthopedics. So, if spine is not the answer, where will VCs find investment opportunities in orthopedics, which remains one of the largest device sectors?

Increasing concerns over the cost and efficacy of spinal procedures have chilled VC interest in spine companies, once the hot growth area in orthopedics. So, if spine is not the answer, where will VCs find investment opportunities in orthopedics, which remains one of the largest device sectors?

Given how many start-up companies and their investors have rushed into spine over the past decade or so, one might assume that getting spine surgeons to adopt new technology is relatively easy. - But less than five years after the launch of the first artificial disc was supposed to usher in the era of motion preservation, surgeons are still arguing for the benefits of fusion over disc replacement--underscoring the tension between new devices and traditional therapy options. But one start-up, Vertos Medical Inc., has found a creative way around the adoption issue. Promoting a novel approach to spinal stenosis, Vertos' solution is to focus on the patient, rather than the surgeon, treating stenosis earlier in the continuum of care by reaching out to a new clinical specialty, interventional pain physicians.