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Three 2026 AHF Traveling Fellows on what two weeks in the operating rooms of the highest-volume anterior hip surgeons in the US taught them that no video could.

For early-career hip surgeons weighing the fellowship, and for anyone trying to turn anterior approach technique into surgical judgment.

This is the second of three conversations with the 2026 AHF Traveling Fellows. Host Joe Schwab sits down with Jadye Kee, a joint replacement surgeon in community practice in Bryan-College Station, Texas; Pat Maher, a hip and knee surgeon at EvergreenHealth in Kirkland, Washington; and Leo Zalikha, a Stanford-trained reconstruction surgeon now practicing in Long Beach, California. Three very different practices, two weeks on the road from Hoag in Irvine to Anderson Clinic, the Southern Joint Institute in Nashville, and Louisville, and one shared question: what actually changed when they got home?

The answer starts in the OR but does not stay there. The fellows describe the small things nobody voices on video, from capsule tagging and retractor timing to a calcar release that depends on how the femur drops, and what it meant to be able to ask the surgeon why. They work through judgment versus technique, how to know when the femur is released enough, when a long femoral revision still belongs posterior, the on-table versus off-table question, and how to bring high-volume habits back to a community hospital with a different patient population. Along the way: BMI cutoffs and widening indications, value-based care, and why the OR is always an N of one.

What stayed with them most was not a maneuver. It was watching how surgeons at the top of their field run a room, empower a team, and give their time to the people coming up behind them, and the kind of mentors they now want to be. They close with the case for why their group beat the first one, and a one-sentence answer to what the fellowship gave them that no technique could.

Thinking about applying for the 2027 AHF Traveling Fellowship? Applications run through the Anterior Hip Foundation, linked below.

⏱️ Chapters:
00:00 Meet the 2026 AHF Traveling Fellows
01:21 What three early-career surgeons wanted from the fellowship
05:48 Itinerary: Hoag, Anderson Clinic, Nashville, Louisville
09:53 Watching experts up close: why every step has a reason
15:24 Judgment vs technique in anterior hip replacement
19:40 Bringing high-volume lessons back to a community hospital
22:12 Good vs great surgeons, and finding your own technique
26:42 Patient selection, value-based care, evidence vs experience
31:54 Long femoral revisions and on-table vs off-table
34:24 OR culture and flow: fluoro setup, walkie-talkies, two rooms
38:35 The kind of mentor they want to become
42:55 What the fellowship really offers beyond technique
46:20 Day one again, and where they hope to be in five years
52:03 Which 2026 fellows group was better?
54:00 The takeaway that wasn't a technique, and applying for 2027

Listen to the AHF Podcast on your preferred platform:
Buzzsprout: https://ahfpodcast.buzzsprout.com
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ahf-podcast/id1749521487
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5CrGJyvRiQFTCU3FFFVvHc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/ahf-podcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@anteriorhipfoundation
Homepage: https://anteriorhipfoundation.com

This podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only.

The content discussed does not constitute medical advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional judgment. Clinicians should rely on their own training, experience, and clinical decision-making when applying information from this discussion.

#AnteriorHipFoundation #AHFPodcast

#TravelingFellowship #AnteriorApproach #AnteriorHip #TotalHipArthroplasty #HipReplacement #RevisionTHA #OrthopedicSurgery #SurgicalMentorship #ValueBasedCare #JadyeKee #PatMaher #LeoZalikha

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Three 2026 AHF Traveling Fellows on what two and a half weeks scrubbing in with the most experienced anterior hip surgeons in the US actually changed in their practice.

For early-career hip surgeons weighing the fellowship, and for anyone refining their anterior approach technique, revision skills, or practice model.

Every year the Anterior Hip Foundation sends a small group of early-career surgeons city to city to scrub in with the highest-volume and most innovative anterior hip surgeons in the country. Host Joe Schwab sits down with Alex Savage, Anoop Prasad, and Brent Albracht, three of the 2026 fellows with academic, community, and transatlantic vantage points, to unpack the trip while it is still fresh.

The conversation moves from the OR to everything around it: radiographic versus acetabular inclination in Dr. Matta's cadaver lab, anterior nail conversion in Houston, buttress fixation for large acetabular defects from the front, the femoral broach angle that had caused two perforations, and the on-table versus off-table question that came up at every stop. Along the way the fellows retrace the itinerary from San Francisco through Los Angeles, Houston, Charlotte, and Atlanta to the AHF meeting, and describe what they learned from watching how surgeons at the top of their game run teams, follow up patients, and build a practice.

They are also candid about what the fellowship costs in family time and practice coverage, who it is not built for, and what they would tell next year's applicants. Their biggest takeaways were not techniques at all: confidence, an approach to practice, and perspective.

⏱️ Chapters:
00:00 Meet the 2026 AHF Traveling Fellows
01:17 Three different roads to anterior hip arthroplasty
06:01 The Shania Twain karaoke story
07:33 Cup inclination lessons from Dr. Matta's cadaver lab
11:22 Anterior nail conversion tips from Houston
12:56 What changed in the OR after the fellowship
14:50 Anterior approach revision: buttress fixation research
17:18 Cadaver labs vs live cases for learning revision
20:57 Fixing femoral broach angle after two perforations
23:17 The fellowship itinerary from San Francisco to Nashville
28:05 Team culture at OrthoCarolina
29:25 Unexpected mentors and practice-building lessons
34:34 What the fellows learned from each other
39:41 Family, PA coverage, and the cost of three weeks away
46:09 On-table vs off-table anterior hip: where each fellow landed
51:57 Who the Traveling Fellowship is not built for
56:59 Advice for next year's fellows: notes, GoPro, survival guide
1:00:49 Confidence, perspective, and the biggest takeaways
1:04:45 Which fellows group wins, and why to apply for 2027

Listen to the AHF Podcast on your preferred platform:
Buzzsprout: https://ahfpodcast.buzzsprout.com
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ahf-podcast/id1749521487
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5CrGJyvRiQFTCU3FFFVvHc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/ahf-podcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@anteriorhipfoundation
Homepage: https://anteriorhipfoundation.com

This podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only.

The content discussed does not constitute medical advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional judgment. Clinicians should rely on their own training, experience, and clinical decision-making when applying information from this discussion.

#AnteriorHipFoundation #AHFPodcast
#TravelingFellowship #AnteriorApproach #AnteriorHip #TotalHipArthroplasty #HipReplacement #RevisionTHA #OrthopedicSurgery #SurgicalEducation #Arthroplasty #AlexSavage #AnoopPrasad #BrentAlbracht

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Can you really revise a failed total hip through the anterior approach? Three surgeons who do it every week explain when they stay anterior, when they still go posterior, and how they plan the exposure.

A practical roundtable on anterior approach revision hip arthroplasty for arthroplasty surgeons, fellows, and residents.

The knock on anterior approach revision has always been that it is not extensile. Eric Cohen, Kris Alden, and Molly Hartzler take that head-on: from the ASIS to the lateral knee, total femurs, cup-cages, and periprosthetic fractures are all on the table, and the recovery data increasingly favors the front. They also draw their lines honestly. One of them has not done a posterior revision in fifteen years; the other two still pick the approach case by case, and they explain exactly which red flags send them posterior.

The conversation gets specific quickly. How to diagnose and sequence a failed hip before approach even enters the discussion. How to plan an incision you can extend, and what to do with a prior bikini scar. Whether to excise the old scar and whether to keep or remove the capsule. How to regain your bearings with fluoroscopy and a functional standing pelvis film when the landmarks are gone. And on the acetabular side, how to balance defect fill, biomechanics, and cup orientation, when a single integrated revision system changes the plan, and where dual mobility and constrained liners actually belong.

It closes with the one mistake almost every surgeon makes when they first revise from the front, a guardrail for anyone early in the journey, and a look at where anterior approach revision is headed as implants and instruments finally catch up with the approach.

This episode was recorded in partnership with Smith+Nephew — Life Unlimited. The REDAPT Revision Hip System and OR3O Dual Mobility give surgeons a flexible, stability-focused approach to revision total hip arthroplasty — from compromised bone and fixation challenges to instability. Learn more at https://www.smithandnephew.com

⏱️ Chapters:
00:00 Introduction: anterior approach revision roundtable
02:17 Is anterior approach revision really extensile?
03:31 How modern revision cups changed screw and cup-cage decisions
05:59 Exposure and diagnosis before technique in teaching revision
07:12 Sequencing a failed total hip before choosing an approach
09:26 Red flags for going posterior instead of anterior
13:44 Acetabular bone loss and revision cup technology
15:20 Anterior approach revision for instability
18:29 Planning extensile exposure: bikini vs longitudinal incisions
26:20 Reopening the old scar and handling the capsule
30:24 Orientation without landmarks: fluoroscopy and stability testing
34:51 Filling defects and choosing an acetabular revision system
37:41 Dual mobility vs constrained liners in revision
41:49 The most common early mistake in anterior approach revision
42:43 Head size, dual mobility, and avoiding over-constraint
44:37 Parting advice and the future of anterior approach revision

Listen to the AHF Podcast on your preferred platform:
Buzzsprout: https://ahfpodcast.buzzsprout.com
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ahf-podcast/id1749521487
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5CrGJyvRiQFTCU3FFFVvHc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/ahf-podcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@anteriorhipfoundation
Homepage: https://anteriorhipfoundation.com

This podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only.

The content discussed does not constitute medical advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional judgment. Clinicians should rely on their own training, experience, and clinical decision-making when applying information from this discussion.

#AnteriorHipFoundation #AHFPodcast

#RevisionHip #RevisionTHA #TotalHipArthroplasty #AnteriorApproach #AcetabularRevision #CupCage #DualMobility #ConstrainedLiner #HipInstability #PeriprostheticFracture #EricCohen #KrisAlden #MollyHartzler #SmithNephew

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Hip resurfacing was written off after the metal-on-metal era — but the patients kept coming back happy. Two surgeons who never stopped offering it explain what changed, and what a vitamin E polyethylene bearing does to the failure mode that ended it.

For hip surgeons weighing whether resurfacing belongs in their toolkit, and for anyone interested in where orthopedic implant innovation actually comes from.

Sharat Kusuma left clinical practice to lead JointMedica as CEO, developing the PolyMotion resurfacing device. Craig Della Valle, of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, took Sharat on as a fellow nearly twenty years ago and is now an investigator in the device's IDE study. Both learned the operation in the Birmingham era — Craig with Derek McMinn, Sharat during six months in England with McMinn, Ronan Treacy and Andrew Manktelow.

Neither of them skips the hard parts. Craig is candid about revising his own metal-on-metal failures, about resurfacing taking longer and paying the same as a total hip, and about how much of the case rests on results he cannot randomize. Sharat argues the real ceiling is instrumentation rather than the operation, and that implant companies — not surgeons — should carry the burden of making a difficult procedure easy. They disagree, usefully, about how familiar the PolyMotion cup will feel the first time a surgeon picks it up.

A long stretch of the conversation is about the anterior approach specifically: whether resurfacing is harder or easier from the front, what the capsulotomy actually demands, and why centering the guide pin in the femoral neck is the step still waiting to be solved. If you do anterior approach hips and have wondered whether resurfacing is a reasonable extension of what you already do, start there.

⏱️ Chapters:
00:00 Why hip resurfacing is getting a second look
02:40 The problem a stemmed total hip still doesn't solve
05:29 Learning resurfacing in Birmingham and the first 20 cases
08:50 Dislocation, fracture and infection rates in resurfacing
13:55 The coming wave of periprosthetic fractures
19:20 Practicing through the metal-on-metal fallout
27:17 Is hip resurfacing niche? Sizing the candidate pool
33:22 Inside PolyMotion's vitamin E polyethylene bearing
40:50 Why cup stiffness affects acetabular bone response
45:02 Anterior approach resurfacing: synergy, not rivalry
55:36 Centering the guide pin and avoiding neck fracture
1:05:15 Telling a surgical fad from a real advance

Listen to the AHF Podcast on your preferred platform:
Buzzsprout: https://ahfpodcast.buzzsprout.com
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ahf-podcast/id1749521487
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5CrGJyvRiQFTCU3FFFVvHc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/ahf-podcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@anteriorhipfoundation
Homepage: https://anteriorhipfoundation.com

This podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only.

The content discussed does not constitute medical advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional judgment. Clinicians should rely on their own training, experience, and clinical decision-making when applying information from this discussion.

#AHFPodcast #AnteriorHipFoundation #HipResurfacing #PolyMotion #JointMedica #AnteriorApproach #HipArthroplasty #MetalOnMetal #BHR #VitaminEPolyethylene #IDEStudy #SharatKusuma #CraigDellaValle

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Dislocation after anterior approach total hip replacement still runs around 2% in the first two years — so what actually moves that number?

Three hip surgeons work through instability prevention end to end, from the first clinic visit to the final construct.

The anterior approach has pushed dislocation rates in the right direction, but it has not solved instability — and the belief that it has is where surgeons get caught. In this roundtable, Jeff Barry, Blair Ashley, and Chance Gray work through what the database and registry literature actually show, why anterior approach hips come out the front and the back rather than predictably out the back, and how much of that risk is genuinely modifiable.

The conversation gets specific quickly. They disagree productively on whether instability risk can be optimized in the patient at all, or whether it is simply a surgeon's problem to engineer around. They cover cup targets in the setting of hip-spine mismatch, what a standing AP film really tells you, the intraoperative stability checks each of them refuses to skip, and how to escalate a construct — head size, lateralized liners, offset and length, dual mobility — without letting the most constrained option become the default.

This one is for arthroplasty surgeons, fellows, and residents building their own instability algorithm, and for anyone who has looked at a well-positioned cup on a postoperative film and wondered what they missed. It closes with each surgeon's single piece of advice for avoiding that lesson the hard way.

⏱️ Chapters:
00:00 Introduction and what the data says about dislocation
03:47 Why instability prevention starts in the clinic
05:57 Cup position first when diagnosing an unstable hip
08:30 How anterior and posterior hips dislocate differently
12:34 Instability risk after revision anterior approach surgery
14:28 Counseling patients on dislocation risk and risk factors
19:14 Why instability is a surgeon problem, not a patient problem
22:55 Planning for hip-spine mismatch in anterior approach hips
27:32 Explaining the hip-spine relationship to patients
31:48 Where CT-based planning tools fit into instability risk
35:09 Dual mobility and high offset stems for high risk patients
40:22 Non-negotiable stability checks before you close
45:32 Intraoperative red flags and navigation beyond fluoroscopy
50:04 Escalating head size, lateralized liners, and offset
56:24 Are constrained liners obsolete in the dual mobility era
1:00:43 An end-to-end instability prevention algorithm
1:07:39 Parting advice on preventing dislocation

Listen to the AHF Podcast on your preferred platform:
Buzzsprout: https://ahfpodcast.buzzsprout.com
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ahf-podcast/id1749521487
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5CrGJyvRiQFTCU3FFFVvHc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/ahf-podcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@anteriorhipfoundation
Homepage: https://anteriorhipfoundation.com

This podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only.

This episode was recorded in partnership with Smith+Nephew — Life Unlimited.
Learn more at https://www.smith-nephew.com

The content discussed does not constitute medical advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional judgment. Clinicians should rely on their own training, experience, and clinical decision-making when applying information from this discussion.

#AnteriorHipFoundation #AHFPodcast

#HipInstability #HipDislocation #TotalHipArthroplasty #THA #AnteriorApproach #DualMobility #Spinopelvic #RevisionHipArthroplasty #ConstrainedLiner #JeffBarry #BlairAshley #ChanceGray

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What if the C-arm you already own could show you the entire pelvis — in real time, with less radiation? The winners of the 2026 AHF Shark Tank believe it can, and they built the system to prove it.

Dr. Dean Cole, an orthopedic trauma surgeon with roughly 40 patents and designs licensed across the industry, and Scott Banks, PhD, who has spent nearly four decades quantifying how joints actually move under fluoroscopy across more than 200 published papers, join Joe Schwab to tell the story of Orthopedic Driven Imaging (ODI) — the company born from a 2022 cold call — and SODI, their FDA-cleared imaging platform that retrofits the GE OEC C-arms already sitting in an estimated 22,000 operating rooms.

The conversation traces both founders' paths: Dean's trauma training under Jeff Mast and a lifetime of problem-solving inherited from a space-program father; Scott's route from pre-med engineer to Mako-era implant design and a career asking how knees and hips really move. Together they explain why surgical planning and postoperative confirmation have advanced dramatically while the middle of the operation stayed fuzzy — and what a full-field-of-view detector changes for anterior approach hip replacement: pelvis alignment from a video camera in the collimator, fewer scout shots, less radiation, and femoral offset you can actually measure.

They also get practical about adoption: what they'd say to the surgeon who trusts their current imaging, why anterior hip and spine come first while the joint-kinematics vision matures, and what they're looking for from early-adopter surgeons (orthodriven.com).

⏱️ Chapters:
00:00 Introduction: the AHF Shark Tank winners
01:35 Pitching surgeons live at AHF 2026
04:33 Dean Cole: trauma, Jeff Mast, and 40 patents
07:12 Scott Banks: an engineer's toolbox for medicine
09:02 What we still can't see about joint motion
11:31 The 2022 phone call that started ODI
15:33 A founding team built by serendipity
18:13 Two decades of C-arms, nav, and robotics
21:30 What robotics does well — and the ill-defined target
26:56 Full field of view, less radiation, same workflow
30:55 Retrofitting the C-arm you already own
34:16 What early ODI cases taught Dean
36:11 Why anterior hip (and spine) come first
38:29 To the surgeon who trusts their current setup
40:09 Hip replacement five years from now
41:16 What ODI wants from early adopters
44:08 Taking risks late in a career
49:50 Advice for surgeon-innovators in training
53:06 What they hope patients never have to know

Listen to the AHF Podcast on your preferred platform:
Buzzsprout: https://ahfpodcast.buzzsprout.com
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ahf-podcast/id1749521487
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5CrGJyvRiQFTCU3FFFVvHc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/ahf-podcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@anteriorhipfoundation
Homepage: https://anteriorhipfoundation.com
Guest company: https://orthodriven.com

This podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only.

The content discussed does not constitute medical advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional judgment. Clinicians should rely on their own training, experience, and clinical decision-making when applying information from this discussion.

#AnteriorHipFoundation #AHFPodcast #TotalHipArthroplasty #THA #AnteriorApproach #HipReplacement #Fluoroscopy #SurgicalImaging #OrthopedicInnovation #SharkTank #DeanCole #ScottBanks #ODI #OrthopedicSurgery

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What do you do when the foot slips out of the traction boot mid-case — and a manageable periprosthetic fracture becomes a femur in pieces? Dr. Nick Mast has an answer, because it happened to him.

Nick Mast, a hip and pelvis surgeon in private practice in San Francisco, trained under Joel Matta at the Hip and Pelvis Institute in 2007–2008 and completed hip preservation training in Europe. He's also a second-generation surgeon — son of fracture-surgery pioneer Jeff Mast — and his practice runs heavy on the cases other surgeons send away: complex trauma, revisions, non-unions, and malunions. For this Operation FUBAR episode, he brings a career's worth of them.

The case series spans a 35-year-old malunited both-column acetabular fracture with protrusio (in a yoga instructor), the reverse femoral-head grafting technique he learned from Frédéric Laude in Paris, bilateral Crowe IV high hip dislocations, converting a failed PAO in a Perthes hip, post-traumatic arthritis with intrapelvic hardware, geriatric acetabular fractures treated with fix-and-replace, simultaneous bilateral Perthes replacements — and the recent one: an osteoporotic periprosthetic fracture revision where the foot came out of the boot and the leg fell, comminuting the diaphysis mid-case.

The most valuable part may be what happens around the surgery: how Mast keeps a room calm by lowering his voice instead of raising it, the pack-the-wound pause he learned from his father, the mid-case calls to trusted colleagues that produced the solution, how he reads bone quality on a plain radiograph (the "third-third-third" rule), and why his practice has shifted toward French-paradox cementing. For anterior approach surgeons, fellows, and residents, this is a masterclass in complex hips — and in composure.

⏱️ Chapters:
00:00 What Operation FUBAR is
01:01 Introducing Dr. Nick Mast
03:06 A both-column fracture, 35 years later
06:05 Restoring the hip center in protrusio
08:46 The reverse femoral-head grafting technique
13:27 Reduce, reuse, recycle: step by step
17:29 Bilateral Crowe IV: who needs a subtroch?
19:34 Low, small, and medial — the dysplasia mantra
21:09 An SROM for ninety degrees of anteversion
24:05 Converting a failed PAO in a Perthes hip
27:05 Intrapelvic hardware from the front
29:08 Geriatric acetabular fracture: fix and replace
33:37 Bilateral Perthes, done simultaneously
35:21 The hardest call: length in unilateral Perthes
37:33 A periprosthetic fracture goes FUBAR
40:56 The foot comes out of the boot
43:59 Staying calm when the case falls apart
46:34 Pack the wound, phone a friend
48:55 Reading bad bone; the case for cement
51:39 Advice to a younger Nick Mast

Listen to the AHF Podcast on your preferred platform:
Buzzsprout: https://ahfpodcast.buzzsprout.com
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ahf-podcast/id1749521487
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5CrGJyvRiQFTCU3FFFVvHc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/ahf-podcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@anteriorhipfoundation
Homepage: https://anteriorhipfoundation.com

This podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only.

The content discussed does not constitute medical advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional judgment. Clinicians should rely on their own training, experience, and clinical decision-making when applying information from this discussion.

#AnteriorHipFoundation #AHFPodcast #OperationFUBAR #TotalHipArthroplasty #THA #AnteriorApproach #HipReplacement #AcetabularFracture #PeriprostheticFracture #Dysplasia #CroweIV #Perthes #NickMast #OrthopedicSurgery

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What do you do the moment a calcar crack appears? Where does the cup go when the spine won't move? And which complex primary belongs in an ASC — and which one absolutely doesn't?

This episode launches a six-part surgeon roundtable series recorded in partnership with Smith+Nephew — peer-to-peer conversations aimed at one thing: practical, reproducible techniques you can take back to your operating room. First up, the complex primary total hip: severe dysplasia, post-traumatic anatomy, obesity, osteoporosis, and Dorr A femurs — the hips where the margin for error shrinks and the plan gets tested.

Three guests join Joe Schwab: Dr. Jessica Hooper, who leads an outpatient joint program and knows what complex work can be done safely in an ASC; Dr. Stephen Duncan, who operates from hip preservation through revision and sees exactly which traps in a primary set up the revision that follows; and Dr. Chad Watts, a high-volume hip surgeon focused on making every step repeatable.

The conversation gets concrete fast: structured planning two weeks out (CT for version, long-leg standing films — "hope is not a plan"), go/no-go criteria for the anterior approach, the low-small-medial cup strategy in dysplasia versus the oversized-cup trap, locking-screw cups in deficient bone, why triple-taper stems changed the fracture picture, automated impaction, the full decision framework for an intraoperative calcar crack, controlled medialization under fluoro (and the case for sharp reamers), where each surgeon falls on the spinopelvic spectrum, when dual mobility earns its place, and what changes between ASC and hospital workflows — including how to teach plan B and plan C so, as Dr. Duncan puts it, "plan C should not be chaos."

⏱️ Chapters:
00:00 A new roundtable series
02:06 Keeping high-risk primaries safe in an ASC
02:59 The step Chad Watts never skips
04:08 The traps that set up tomorrow's revision
05:05 What dysplasia and post-trauma change in the plan
07:39 When not to go anterior
09:00 Non-negotiables: templating, version, limb length
10:25 "Hope is not a plan": CT and long-leg films
11:41 Restoring the hip center without over-lengthening
15:09 A preservation mindset in dysplasia
16:51 Dorr A femurs: exposure and broaching principles
18:17 Where fractures happen — and how to prevent them
19:57 Intraoperative cues to slow down
23:00 Stem design, triple tapers, and automated impaction
28:18 Calcar crack: the decision framework
34:33 Keeping the room calm and controlled
35:39 Avoiding over-reaming in compromised bone
37:21 Hitting narrow cup targets under fluoro
40:13 How much does spinopelvic mobility matter?
44:01 Where dual mobility earns its place
46:24 Reproducible workflows: ASC vs. hospital
50:23 "Plan C should not be chaos"
51:48 Closing advice: mindset shifts and patient selection

Listen to the AHF Podcast on your preferred platform:
Buzzsprout: https://ahfpodcast.buzzsprout.com
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ahf-podcast/id1749521487
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5CrGJyvRiQFTCU3FFFVvHc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/ahf-podcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@anteriorhipfoundation
Homepage: https://anteriorhipfoundation.com

This episode was recorded in partnership with Smith+Nephew — Life Unlimited.
Learn more at https://www.smith-nephew.com

This podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only.

The content discussed does not constitute medical advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional judgment. Clinicians should rely on their own training, experience, and clinical decision-making when applying information from this discussion.

#AnteriorHipFoundation #AHFPodcast #TotalHipArthroplasty #THA #AnteriorApproach #HipReplacement #Dysplasia #CalcarFracture #DorrA #DualMobility #SpinopelvicMobility #OutpatientSurgery #SmithNephew #OrthopedicSurgery

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In the finale of From Idea to Market, the surgeons, engineers, founders, attorneys, and investors who lived every stage of medical device innovation look back and answer one question: what do they wish they had known from the start?

Across this series, one pattern kept surfacing: innovation doesn't begin with a business plan. It begins with a clinical problem someone can't let go — a resident watching a procedure that felt inadequate and carrying that feeling for twenty-five years, or a physician-turned-founder who couldn't stop thinking about a patient who lacked what she needed.

In this closing episode, Robert Cohen reflects on four decades in med tech and the permission to say "I don't know." Alexander Sah describes the emotional rollercoaster of introducing new technology — and knowing when to abandon an idea. Charlie DeCook and Simon Mifsud explain why the idea itself is never the advantage. Charles Lawrie distills the whole journey into a playbook: start with a problem you live, build with people who know what you don't, think big but execute small. Leo Whiteside talks about protecting intellectual property, standing alone on panels, and why the work is "a very joyful thing to do." Emily Ast and Marie-Isabelle Batthyány close with the tests that matter: the right team, the family at the dinner table, and a real need — not an imagined one.

If there's a problem in your practice that keeps coming back to you, this episode is the series' parting argument for taking it seriously. From here, it's yours.

⏱️ Chapters:
00:00 Introduction: what the series taught us about innovators
02:54 The problem you can't let go: where innovation begins
07:13 What innovation demands: vulnerability and listening
09:42 The emotional rollercoaster of device development
11:29 Why the idea is not the advantage: iteration and teams
13:55 Charles Lawrie's playbook: start with a problem you live
16:52 Leo Whiteside on opposition, IP, and the joy of the work
19:04 Legal, financial, and family support for innovators
20:33 Real needs, not imagined ones: the test of every device
22:03 From here, it's yours: a challenge to the next innovator

Listen to the AHF Podcast on your preferred platform:
Buzzsprout: https://ahfpodcast.buzzsprout.com
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ahf-podcast/id1749521487
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This podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only.

The content discussed does not constitute medical advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional judgment. Clinicians should rely on their own training, experience, and clinical decision-making when applying information from this discussion.

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Is your med tech company built to last, or built to sell? Voices from inside Stryker, XRSynergies, FIOS Health, and physician contract law explain why exit strategy is a design choice founders make on day one — whether they realize it or not.

In 2024, med tech M&A reached a record $474 billion in global transaction value. For most successful device startups, the path to broad patient reach runs through acquisition — and that reality shapes how experienced founders structure their companies from the moment of incorporation. Corporate form, consulting agreements, equity design, and quality systems all encode an implied destination long before an acquirer ever calls.

Robert Cohen (VP of Innovation & Technology, Stryker Orthopedics) describes how acquisition conversations actually unfold — why the clinical case comes before any discussion of cost of goods or time to market, and how incorporating as a C corporation from day one made his second company's acquisition by Mako Surgical dramatically easier. Marie-Isabelle Batthyány (founder & CEO, XRSynergies) explains building a company that is "easy to take over," from phantom share programs to diligence-ready quality management. Attorney Emily Ast unpacks the shift from long royalty streams toward milestone-based deal structures, and Charles Lawrie (co-founder, FIOS Health) makes the case for clinical validation as the founder's contribution, with commercial scaling left to the acquirer.

Whether you're a surgeon with a device idea, a founder weighing an LLC against a C corporation, or a clinician curious how acquisitions preserve or lose the clinical knowledge behind a product, this episode maps the decisions that determine what your company becomes.

⏱️ Chapters:
00:00 Introduction: exit as a design choice, not a finish line
03:00 Meet the founders, acquirers, and attorneys
05:06 Early structural choices that define what a company becomes
06:04 What a med tech acquirer is actually buying
08:12 How acquisition conversations start: the clinical case first
10:24 Structuring a startup to be acquisition-ready
12:57 Path dependency: early decisions that get expensive to reverse
14:17 Why a C corporation from day one speeds diligence
16:31 Royalties vs milestone payments in med tech deals
19:34 Why acquisitions underperform: knowledge transfer and retention
24:18 Building to sell: clinical validation vs commercial scale

Listen to the AHF Podcast on your preferred platform:
Buzzsprout: https://ahfpodcast.buzzsprout.com
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ahf-podcast/id1749521487
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5CrGJyvRiQFTCU3FFFVvHc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/ahf-podcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@anteriorhipfoundation
Homepage: https://anteriorhipfoundation.com

This podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only.

The content discussed does not constitute medical advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional judgment. Clinicians should rely on their own training, experience, and clinical decision-making when applying information from this discussion.

#AnteriorHipFoundation #AHFPodcast #MedTech #MedicalDevices #MedTechAcquisitions #ExitStrategy #MedicalDeviceStartup #OrthopedicSurgery #HealthcareInnovation #DeviceDevelopment #FromIdeaToMarket #Stryker