K7 has received FDA 510(k) clearance for its K7C Cervical Spacer spinal implant for use as an intervertebral body fusion device.

DeRoyal and Remotec are using additive manufacturing to create custom orthopedic implants through 3-D printing at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, according to Knoxville Biz.

The Food and Drug Administration has announced its proposal to create a unique device identification (UDI) system for medical devices, which will impact both suppliers and providers. The rule itself has its genesis in a report from 1999 stating that 100,000 people die annually as a result of medical errors that could be avoided. In 2004, a law for identifying pharmaceutical products using the NDC was created and went into effect in 2006. Pharmaceutical companies were required to print bar codes on their products so they could be scanned at the bedside and in the operating room. There was no comparable standard such as the NDC for medical-surgical products, which set things in motion for UDI.

The countrywide first payment of the new 2.3 percent medical device tax totaled $97 million, according to Star Tribune.

Myoscience in Redwood City, Calif., a medical device company, announced that the newest generation of its patented device technology has received FDA clearance for the treatment of pain.   

The implantable medical device market in the United States is expected to grow annually by 8 percent over seven years, according to Med City News.

Minneapolis-based Zimmer Spine and Zimmer Inc., its Indiana-based affiliate, have announced they will lay off 93 Austin employees over the next few months, according to the Austin Business Journal.

Pioneer Surgical Technology's Tritium Sternal Cable Plating System was used to close median sternotomies during an open heart procedure.

SPR Therapeutics, a medical device company, has raised $5 million in the initial phase of financing for the commercialization of pain therapies using its proprietary peripheral nerve stimulation technology, according to a peHUB report.   

Hyun Bae, MD, is the Director of Education at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the Medical Director of the Spine Institute in Santa Monica. He has researched stem cell repair for degenerative disc disease and the use of growth factors to treat spinal cord injuries. He was among the first to use growth factor tissue engineering for intervertebral discs and chaired the "Spine Across the Sea" meeting in 2012 for the North American Spine Society.