Roger Hartl, MD

To me, this is one of the most basic issues in spine surgery currently.

So I'm very excited about that.

And I know we've got some mechanical solutions.

You know, we've got Barricade.

There's another small company from Israel, Spinol.

that has a little implant that's not FDA approved at this point.

But I'm not sure that implants are really the final solution.

I think there has to be some kind of biological intervention, either in isolation or together with some type of implant that help us regenerate and repair that annular defect.

And that's something that I'm very excited about.

Yeah, I think that's crucial.

And that brings me to another point.

If you want to do this type of research, clinical research, you need a team of multidisciplinary specialists.

And that's exactly why we started OxSpine.

in New York City, which is really a combination of operative and non-operative providers.

We just opened, actually a year ago, exactly one year ago, we opened Prospiral, our spine center in Hudson Yards, where we have 60,000 square feet.

And it's the first time that Columbia and Cornell doctors work together in one space.

And we've got 25 surgeons.

We've got 30 non-operative spine providers.

We've got physical therapy, radiology.

So this type of research, if you want to do this type of research where you really include patients, you need a multidisciplinary team of specialists that all work together.