Deconstructing the Cost of Spine Care: Where Dollars Really Go
The media has paid a lot of attention to physician compensation recently as a means to decrease the cost of care, but among spine patients — even surgical patients — the surgeon's compensation is just a small piece of a huge pie. Click to continue >>
Accountable Spine Care: Behind the Michigan Spine Surgery Improvement Collaborative
The Michigan Spine Surgery Improvement Collaborative was launched in September 2013 as a collaborative between Henry Ford Health System, eight Michigan hospitals, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network to gather data that will help improve outcomes for spine surgery patients. Click to continue >>
The Volatile Spine Device Market: Mergers, IPOs & International Growth
The spine and orthopedic device markets have seen almost everything during the first six months of 2014: huge company merger/acquisition deals, initial public offerings and announcements that even some of the smaller players in the markets are going global. Click to continue >>
Publisher’s Letter
17 Spine Surgeons Receive Leadership Award
Becker's Healthcare is recognizing the following spine surgeons for their leadership, experience and entrepreneurship in the field. Click to continue >>
Dr. Roger Hӓrtl: 4 Exciting Areas in Spine Development
Director of Spinal Surgery and Co-Director of the Weill Cornell Brain and Spine Center Roger Hӓrtl, MD, has spent a career on the forefront of spinal innovation and development. He is very involved in several spine research problems.Click to continue >>
Stem Cells for Spine: Phase 2 Outcomes Promising for Mesoblast
Mesoblast recently completed enrollment for its double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2 clinical trial at multiple sites across the United States and Australia to randomize 100 patients with intervertebral disc disease to receive either high doses of the company's allogeneic MPCs with hyaluronic acid carrier, hyaluronic acid carrier alone or saline solution.Click to continue >>
XLIF for Scoliosis Surgery: Dr. Frank Phillips Measures Positive Outcomes
Frank M. Phillips, MD, Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Rush University Medical Center and Co-Director of the Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush Minimally Invasive Spine Institute in Chicago, recently published results of a study examining the eXtreme Lateral Interbody Fusion (XLIF) procedure for patients with degenerative scoliosis. Click to continue >>
The Economics of Spine Surgery: How Pain Management Makes a Difference
Spine surgery is an expensive procedure, but for patients who would benefit from surgical correction the long-term economic benefits can far outweigh the initial cost of care. Click to continue >>
Changing the Way We Look at Pain & Functional Outcomes in Spine Surgery
Spine surgery has made great strides over the past decade from a big open procedure to a small, less invasive surgery in many cases. Click to continue >>
The Financial Health of Providers: Impact of Spine Patient Satisfaction & Pain Management
The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) is a data collection initiative to measure patients' perspectives on hospital care. Click to continue >>
Young Spine Surgeons Entering the Field: 5 Key Trends
Young spine surgeons today are exiting their fellowships and entering into a vastly different healthcare environment than even five years ago. Click to continue >>
CPT Editorial Panel Updates for Spine: 2 Key Concepts for 2015
Earlier this year, the American Medical Association's CPT Editorial Panel announced it will make a few significant changes for spinal procedure coding in 2015. Click to continue >>
Medtronic's $22M Infuse Settlement: 5 Things to Know
Medtronic announced that it has agreed to settle its inventories of filed and unfiled product liability claims related to Infuse Bone Graft. Click to continue >>
The Making of an Interactive Spine Registry: Dr. Zoher Ghogawala
Healthcare is becoming more evidence-based and providers from around the country are gathering data with electronic medical records to show their treatments — surgical or not — produce good outcomes and are cost-effective. Click to continue >>
Becker’s ASC 21st Annual Meeting -The Business and Operations of ASCs Brochure
Here are 50 ambulatory surgery centers with a focus on spine procedures. Click to continue >>
5 Core Concepts on the Biggest Strides in Complex Spine Today
Kyle Colle, DO, a neurosurgeon with Regional Brain and Spine in Cape Girardeau, Mo., discusses trends in complex spine surgery. Click to continue >>
15 Growing Spine Device Companies
Here are 15 fast-growing spine-focused device companies in the market today. Click to continue >>
Post Sunshine Act: How Spine Surgeon Relationships With Industry Are Evolving
In August 2013, the Physician Payment Sunshine Act went into effect, meaning industry interactions with physicians were recorded and published online. Click to continue >>
Medicare Data Released: How Data Transparency is Transforming the Spine Field
Four spine surgeons discuss the Medicare and Medicaid data recently released on spinal fusions and how data transparency is changing healthcare, for better or for worse. Click to continue >>
How Spine Surgeons Opening ASCs Will Impact Healthcare Delivery & Costs
Spine surgery historically has been a big open procedure requiring several recovery days in the hospital. Click to continue >>
Regional Brain and Spine’s Innovative Business Strategy: Leasing One ASC Day Per Week
Regional Brain and Spine in Cape Girardeau, Mo., is a multidisciplinary spine practice with a unique operating agreement in an ambulatory surgery center: the physicians lease the ASC one day per week to perform their cases. Click to continue >>
The Hancocks of Healthcare — A Nashville Success Story
Passion for healthcare runs in the Hancock family. Click to continue >>