Just one month into 2024, orthopedic and spine specialists are already making waves with several 'firsts':
1. Charleston-based West Virginia University Medicine Thomas Hospitals opened the state's first full-service, comprehensive orthopedic hospital.
2. Lafayette-based Louisiana Orthopaedic Specialists opened the system's first ASC.
3. Vincent Rossi, MD, completed his first case using Amplify Surgical's dualLIF technology. Dr. Rossi used the technology to perform a transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion at Atrium Health Mercy Hospital in Charlotte, N.C.
4. Robert Masson, MD, became the first spine surgeon to bring Apple Vision Pro into the operating room.
5. Gulf Orthopaedics surgeon Jay Savage, MD, performed the first total knee replacement at Infirmary Health's Daphne (Ala.) Surgery Center.
6. Elon Musk's brain chip company, Neuralink, completed the first implant in a human.
7. John Mansell, MD, a pain management physician, became the first in the Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota or South Dakota region to implant a closed-loop spinal cord stimulator.
8. John Shin, MD, an orthopedic spine surgeon, performed New Jersey's first unilateral biportal endoscopic spine surgery at Jersey City Medical Center, an RWJBarnabas Health facility.
9. Brad Sparks, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at the Alaska Fracture & Orthopedic Clinic in Anchorage, became the first surgeon in the state to offer the Jiffy Knee procedure for joint replacements.