Integra LifeSciences' New Trel-XPress Demineralized Bone Matrix

Integra LifeSciences' New Trel-XPress Demineralized Bone Matrix: "

Integra LifeSciences out of Plainsboro, New Jersey just launched its Trel-XPress Demineralized Bone Matrix. The new material is derived from demineralized bone matrix (DBM), but has a more open internal geometry, hopefully leading to faster and more effective healing post implantation.

Trel-XPress™ Demineralized Bone Matrix is powered by Accell® technology and is composed of an optimized blend of particulate Demineralized Bone Matrix (DBM), Integra's proprietary Accell® Bone Matrix (ABM), and a reverse phase medium poloxamer. ABM is an open structured and more dispersed form of DBM, providing a high surface area environment that encourages bone formation.

Trel-XPress™ Demineralized Bone Matrix offers an alternative for use as a bone graft in orthopedic extremity reconstruction surgeries. It may reduce the need to harvest the patient's own bone, sparing the patient additional surgery and limiting the risk of any associated complications.

Press release: Integra LifeSciences Introduces Advanced Orthobiologics for Extremity Reconstruction...

Product page: Trel-Xpress...

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Are These The World's Oldest Prosthetic Devices?

Are These The World's Oldest Prosthetic Devices?: "

We report daily on the latest medical devices and studies evaluating their performance on real human subjects. Rarely do we write about prostheses engineered and built three thousand years ago. Today we're following up on a post we published in 2007 regarding a couple ancient Egyptian prosthetic toes that Jacqueline Finch from University of Manchester's KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology has been studying. Her goal was to discover whether these toes were simply aesthetic items or maybe they actually were practical for their original wearers.

The money quote from the study article in The Lancet:

My own research used two volunteers with similar amputation sites and suggested that replicas of both ancient Egyptian false toes performed extremely well. Neither design should be expected to be completely efficient in emulating the flexion of the normal left big toe when pushing off. However, high efficiency was recorded by one volunteer when wearing the replica cartonnage prothesis and also when wearing the wooden one (both worn with replica Egyptian sandals). More importantly, no significant elevation in pressure under the sole was recorded although both volunteers found the articulated wooden design to be especially comfortable.

Press release: Mummies' false toes helped ancient Egyptians walk...

Full article in The Lancet: The ancient origins of prosthetic medicine

Flashback: The Cairo Toe

(hat tip: Gizmag and David R!)

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Mathematically Designed Bone Implant Scaffolds

Mathematically Designed Bone Implant Scaffolds: "

Mathematicians from The University of Queensland are working on a material for bone implants that more closely matches the geometry and properties of the surrounding bone. Traditional titanium implants are much stiffer than human bone and cannot be customized to the patient's anatomy. They used a technique called topology optimisation to design the layout of the material that forms a three-dimensional scaffold. A high-powered laser is then used to melt metal powder into the required shape, layer by layer. The material could be used to create customized implants and features bone pores similar to those found in normal bone. Results were published in the November 2010 issue of Advanced Engineering Materials.

Press release: UQ mathematicians design bone implants for the future...

Article abstract: Prototypes for Bone Implant Scaffolds Designed via Topology Optimization and Manufactured by Solid Freeform Fabrication...

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Orthocon Launches HEMASORB Absorbable Bone Hemostat Matrix

Orthocon Launches HEMASORB Absorbable Bone Hemostat Matrix: "

The Bone Wax War is on! Irvington, NY based Orthocon, Inc. just announced the launch of its HEMASORB Absorbable Bone Hemostat Matrix, a putty which can be applied to cut bones to stop bleeding during surgery. The FDA cleared putty utilizes Orthocon's Syntinate technology, which the company claims can be used to deliver drugs to affected areas in addition to stopping bleeding.

HEMASORB's features, from its product page:

Easy to Use

Stops bone bleeding upon application

Resists irrigation, stays in place

Offers controlled, precise application

Conforms to the site of care

Does not require warming or kneading and is ready to use out of the package

Absorbable

Substantially absorbs within 30 days

Permits normal bone healing

Potentially reduces hematoma formation

Synthetic (Tissue-Free)

Is free from tissue-derived components

Has a minimum two-year expiry date

Meets the ISO10993 standards for biocompatibility

Press release: Absorbable Bone Hemostat Is First Product To Incorporate Syntinate™ Technology Platform...

Product page: HEMASORB® Absorbable Bone Hemostat Matrix...

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On pricing power

Another great and perceptive post from Seth Godin !

On pricing power: "

If you’re not getting paid what you’re worth, there are only two possible reasons:
1. People don’t know what you’re worth, or
2. You’re not (currently) worth as much as you believe

The first situation can’t happen unless you permit it to. If you’re undervalued, then you have a communication problem, one that you can solve by telling accurate stories that resonate.

Far more likely, though, is the second problem. If there are reasonable substitutes for your work, and those substitutes are seen as cheaper, then you’re not going to get the work. 'Worth' in this case means, 'what does it cost to get something like that if something like that is what I want?'

A cheaper substitute might mean buying nothing. Personal coaches, for example, usually sell against this alternative. It’s not a matter of finding a cheaper coach, it’s more about having no coach at all. Same with live music. People don't go to cheaper concerts, they just don't value the concert enough to go at all.

And so we often find ourselve stuck, matching the other guy's price, or worse, racing to the bottom to be cheaper. Cheaper is the last refuge of the marketer unable to invent a better product and tell a better story.

The goal, no matter what you sell, is to be seen as irreplaceable, essential and priceless. If you are all three, then you have pricing power. When the price charged is up to you, when you have the power to set the price, there is a line out the door and you can use pricing as a signaling mechanism, not merely a way to make a living.

Of course, the realization of what it takes to create value might break your heart, because it means you have to specialize, take risks, create art, leave a positive impact and adopt generosity in all you do. It means you have to develop extraordinary expertise and that you are almost always hanging way out of the boat, about to fall out.

The pricing power position in the market is coveted and valuable... The ability to have the power to set a price is at the heart of what it means to do business profitably, so of course there is a never-ending competition for pricing power.

The curse of the internet is that it provides competitive information, which makes pricing power ever more difficult to exercise. On the other hand, the benefit of the internet is that once you have it, the list of people who want to pay for your irreplaceable, essential and priceless contribution will get even longer.

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Why Them? Solving the Mystery of Success Discrepancy

A very interesting post on a very interesting topic.

Why Them? Solving the Mystery of Success Discrepancy: "

It’s a mystery that many dentists spend a lot of time trying to puzzle out: How is that some practitioners greatly outperform others who are doing essentially the same kinds of procedures in the same marketplace?

Are they more naturally skilled as clinicians? Sometimes, maybe—but not as often or by as much as many people believe.

Do they have “better” patients? Even allowing for regional demographical differences, patients are patients and they tend to be motivated by the same things in every practice.

Are they just lucky? I doubt it. Most top performers are consistently top performers and nobody stays that lucky for that long.

Still, when you talk to someone who is struggling and you outline some of the very specific strategies and skills that these successful dentists have mastered —some of the clinical skills, team-alignment methods, value creation techniques, technology-optimizing skills, entrepreneurial strategies—you often get a response like: “I tried that. It didn’t work for me.” But the thing is, it often didn’t work for them, either—at least not at first.

In his ground-breaking book, Good to Great, Jim Collins talks about what he calls the “Flywheel Effect”—how a flywheel requires a lot of force and concentrated effort to get going and keep going until momentum takes hold. But when that momentum boost comes, the effect is phenomenal.

Those dentists who are seeing outstanding results are succeeding not because they’ve discovered tricks nobody else knows about, but because they were willing to do what it takes to push past the initial resistance that comes with implementing change and see it through until the momentum takes over.

For the rest of the pack—those who “tried that” and gave up when they didn’t see immediate results in exchange for their considerable efforts— the sad reality is that they will probably never know how close they were to experiencing that exhilarating breakthrough. They’ll continue to look at those who are leading the profession and wonder what they’re doing differently. It will continue to be a mystery.

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