The doc social Morning Brief is a short daily briefing on the news that actually changes how surgeons and the people who support them work: reimbursement and policy, device clearances and recalls, guideline changes, and the commercial shifts behind them.
It is written for an audience that already knows the clinical fundamentals, so it skips the explainer and goes to what is new — where a device sits against what already exists, what a rule change does to a real clinic day, and what is worth doing about it this week.
Produced by doc social. Narration is synthesized; the reporting and editorial judgement are ours, and every story is sourced.
Episodes
33 total · newest first
Press play on any episode and the show keeps running from there.
BioRestorative Therapies takes a 1-for-20 reverse split to hold its Nasdaq listing while the Phase 2 BRTX-100 disc trial runs to its 52-week endpoint · GMReis completes the first US case with Quick Radius, a single-use distal radius kit built for ambulatory surgery centers · Nanochon treats the first patient in the Chondrograft first-in-human knee cartilage study, in Panama
INFUSE Bone Graft gains Medicare new technology add-on payment eligibility for transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion, effective October 1 · Medtronic's Q1 fiscal 2027: $9.8B and 13.7% growth on a fourteen-week quarter; cranial and spinal technologies up 12.9% organic · OrthoArizona opens a $25M, 50,000-square-foot Glendale center with the ASC, MRI and therapy inside it
Enovis makes a binding offer for eCential Robotics — €155M enterprise value, earnout tied to knee and shoulder · Medtronic invests ~$700M in Cornerstone Robotics for ex-US distribution rights to Sentire · Stryker's SportSuite Vision runs the first Apple Vision Pro hip arthroscopy, at Duke Health · Stryker signs a definitive agreement for ZuriMED and its FiberLocker rotator cuff augmentation system
Comment period closes on CMS's 2027 outpatient/ASC payment rule — pay the building more, the surgeon less · Smith+Nephew's EVOS Pelvic and Acetabular System gets its first case, at Tampa General
The new FY2027 fusion MS-DRGs are device-class, not Carlsmed-exclusive — DeGen plants a flag · Tenon Medical prices a $3M private placement with 177% warrant coverage, closing Aug 31 · Spineart's PERLA TL pedicle screws clear FDA to run on eCential's open robotics platform · Globus Medical acquires Duke-incubated Higgs Boson Health for episode-of-care software
CMS proposes work RVU cuts of 16.6% to 20.8% on primary hip, knee and shoulder arthroplasty in the CY2027 fee schedule · AlloPort opens an allograft procurement network Sept 1, leaving two platforms competing to disintermediate tissue-bank ordering · ACDF matches laminoplasty on neurological recovery in cervical myelopathy with spinal cord-canal mismatch
Alphatec recalls SafeOp patient interfaces over neuromonitoring dropouts, ships a software update · AAOS 2026: first study to quantify prior auth in elective spine finds delay without savings · CMS creates three new MS-DRGs for Carlsmed's aprevo lumbar fusion, effective Oct 1
OIG: Medicare improperly paid $15.2M for SI joint injections, with 72% of sampled sessions non-compliant · Globus Medical Q2 2026: $789.6M net sales, US spine +7%, international spine +14% · OrthoPediatrics buys a UK spinal device manufacturer, expanding its scoliosis line · Dr. Vin Dasa on the rep-less debate: the real question is coverage, and the technology exists
CMS 2027 proposed rule — a fourth straight year of downward pressure, comments close Sept 14 · WISeR brings AI-assisted prior authorization to fee-for-service Medicare in six states · Medtronic's Stealth AXiS clears FDA as an integrated planning + navigation + robotics platform · Spineart's Baguera C cervical disc approved for one and two contiguous levels
