Becker's Spine Review

17 DEVICES & IMPLANTS Large commercial payers in 4 states add lumbar disc replacement coverage By Carly Behm L arge commercial payers in Illinois, Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma now cover one- and two-level lumbar disc replacement. The payer adopted Carleon's Clinical Appropriateness Guidelines for musculoskeletal and spine surgery which cover Centinel Spine's Prodisc L lumbar disc replacement implant, the medtech company said in a Nov. 14 news release. Prodisc L is the only total disc replacement device approved by the FDA for two-level lumbar disc replacement. The new payer update went into effect in August. In September a commercial payer in Michigan added one- and two-level disc replacement coverage, and in October a commercial payer in North Carolina followed suit. n Spinal fusion device market to near $10B by 2030 By Carly Behm T he global spinal fusion device market is expected to reach $9.9 billion by 2030, according to a report from Renub Research. Between 2024 to 2030, the global market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 3.98%, and factors driving growth include growing awareness of minimally invasive surgery and the increased need for spinal fusion devices. The Asia-Pacific region was recognized as an area where the spinal fusion device market is growing due to an aging population. The report also said the cervical spinal fusion segment is expected to increase in the spinal fusion device market. Companies leading the market include Stryker, Medtronic, Zimmer Biomet, Orthofix, Xtant Medical and Alphatec, the report said. n The 1 factor that could propel AI in spine, orthopedics By Carly Behm A rtificial intelligence has been an increasingly popular talking point among spine and orthopedic leaders, but it might not take its hold as rapidly, one CEO said. "[A] trend that I am watching is the continued evolution of AI and large language models in the healthcare space," Andrew Lovewell, CEO at Columbia (Mo.) Orthopaedic Group, said. "At this point, the jury is out on the full use case in many settings that we work in today." Spine technologies such as Holo AI leverage machine learning to assist with clinical decision-making. Large orthopedic groups including New York City-based Hospital for Special Surgery are also looking for ways to advance AI and machine learning. Mr. Lovewell said that despite the hype, he doesn't anticipate an immediate transformation. "ere is a lot of excitement and discussion about the future of medicine and the way it will look given this technological boom that we are experiencing," he said. "However, I don't look for things to change as rapidly as some are predicting." But there's one element that could quicken the adoption of AI in the healthcare space. "Healthcare has been one of the slowest adopters of evolving technologies or principles due to the regulatory burden and the cost curve that exists," Mr. Lovewell said. "If we could find a way to bend the cost curve on cutting-edge technologies, I would expect the deployment and use of AI and large language models to increase exponentially. In fact, as more companies develop AI, machine learning, and LLM, I do believe we will see the cost burden lessen as things become more of a commodity in our space." n

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