Visie, Inc. Crowned Winner of the 2025 AAOS OrthoPitch Competition
Thirty-eight technology startups entered the arena, each hoping to be crowned the National Champion in the 2025 AAOS OrthoPitch competition, a contest highlighting innovation in musculoskeletal (MSK) technology. Organized by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) and sponsored by MCRA (an IQVIA company), Smith & Nephew, SmartTRAK, Troutman Pepper Locke, and AAOS itself, the competition culminated at the recent Academy meeting in San Diego.
The contest challenged the startups through several rounds, beginning with the semi-finals and then the Final Four, before reaching the decisive final round in front of a live, enthusiastic audience.
Innovations on Display
The competition featured a wide variety of creative ideas aiming to improve patient care:
- An MIS Clavicle Pin for treating complex clavicle fractures.
- An easier means of removing acetabular cups using existing power handpieces.
- A method of wound closure said to be nine times faster while also reducing scarring by 38%.
- A biofeedback smart crutch tip for at-home patient use.
- The world’s first soft tissue robot.
- A smart alternative to crutches or knee scooters.
- The world’s first disposable arthroscopy bur, claimed to increase cutting surface area by 601%.
- Novel Dual-Drug Therapy for bone regeneration.
- A mixed reality patient data and navigation system.
- A handheld brush designed to break up, clean, and extract biofilm.
- A method for treating infected implants using alternating magnetic fields.
- A piezoelectric implant delivering electrical stimulation in situ.
These are just a few examples of the innovative technologies showcased at the competition.
The Semi-Finalists
Seven companies successfully advanced past the first rounds to become semi-finalists:
- 16 Bit, Inc.
- Auctus Surgical
- Joint Preservation Innovations
- Orthocell
- SentryX
- Visie, Inc.
- ZygoFix
The companies were evaluated during the first round of the competition by surgeons belonging to the AAOS DBT Committee based on the following key criteria:
- Product concept
- Identified unmet need and market opportunity
- Potential for improvement in the standard of care.
- Ease of implementation or integration into practice
In round two, a panel of regulatory, reimbursement, and commercialization experts, investors, and physicians judged each company’s technology based on:
- Ease of market entry
- Likelihood of achieving reimbursement coverage
- Market impact
- Ease of commercialization.
The Final Four
At the conclusion of the rigorous evaluation process, four finalists were chosen to present their innovative solutions at the AAOS Annual Meeting in San Diego.
The finalists included:
- 16 Bit, Inc.: Developed “Rho,” a software program using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify patients with low bone mineral density by analyzing routine X-rays. Rho has received FDA De Novo market authorization. The program can analyze chest, spine, knee, pelvis, hand, or wrist X-rays in patients 50 years and older.
- Auctus Surgical: Invented a flexible tether to treat adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, designed to straighten the child’s spine. The tether is surgically implanted with one end connected to an implanted magnetically adjusted spool. A surgeon can lengthen the implant using a handheld controller as the child grows.
- SentryX: Developed a novel implantable anesthetic designed to provide pain relief after spine fixation surgery. It is in the form of a ring-shaped biodegradable hydrogel that can be co-implanted with standard pedicle screws. It then delivers bupivacaine at the surgical site, with an effective duration of three days.
- Visie, Inc.: Created a cutting-edge intraoperative 3D scanner, combining optical physics with deep tech to create real-time visualizations during surgery. Its registration scanners generate image registration with over 300,000 3D data points, performing this in a split second.
The Winner
The judges, along with the audience, heard presentations from all four finalists before casting their votes. The judges included:
- Mayank Shandil: Global Senior Vice President – Recon & Robotics at Smith+Nephew
- Dave McGurl: Vice President, Regulatory Affairs – Orthopedics at MCRA, LLC
- Daniel B. F. Saris, MD, PhD, a Mayo Clinic orthopedic surgeon and winner of the inaugural Arnold I. Caplan Award for Distinguished Research in Orthobiologics
The winning technology was the innovative intraoperative 3D scanner from Visie, Inc., led by Doug Fairbanks (CEO), Aaron Bernstein, Ph.D. (Co-founder and CTO), Michael Landry (Head of Engineering), and Gwendolyn Barge (Head of Operations).
As the top-prize winner, Visie, Inc. will receive the following benefits:
- Recognition as the winner of the 2025 OrthoPitch competition.
- Exposure to leading investors, industry strategists, physicians, and fellow members of the industry.
- One-on-one coordinated meetings with at least nine leading MedTech investors.
- A complimentary webinar with AAOS.
- A complimentary booth at the 2026 AAOS Annual Meeting.
- A complimentary regulatory or reimbursement assessment by an MCRA consultant.
- A 20-minute Innovation Theater slot at the 2025 AAOS Annual Meeting.
- A 20-minute Innovation Theater slot at the 2026 AAOS Annual Meeting.
- One year of SmartSTART from SmartTRAK (including limited access to the platform and daily updates). (All finalists may receive SmartTRAK Daily Updates for 6 months. All participants may receive SmartTRAK Daily updates for 60 days).
