eNews January 26, 2026

How is COVID-19 affecting your business, your people, your customers? IMDA is a membership organization, and in times like these, we can all use some camaraderie. If you have a COVID story to share, advice to offer, or a warning to sound, send it to Mark Thill, IMDA’s communications director, at [email protected], with the subject line “IMDA COVID story.” We’ll compile them and send them back out to you.

New material for soft tissue repair

Researchers from U.K.’s University of Birmingham and U.S.’s Duke University have succeeded in ‘fine tuning’ a thermoplastic biomaterial to enable both the rate at which it degrades in the body and its mechanical properties to be controlled independently. A type of polyester, the material has been designed for use in soft tissue repair or flexible bioelectronics. Materials that successfully replicate the necessary elasticity and strength of biological tissues but that also biodegrade over an appropriate timescale are difficult to engineer. This is because the chemistry used to produce a material’s mechanical properties will also typically govern the rate at which it degrades. This research team demonstrated how the addition of succinic acid – a product found naturally within the body-can be used to control the degradation rate.

Newborn deaths studied

Unexpected death or serious disability of a newborn is considered a “never event.” An analysis of over 5 million births between 2011 and 2017 in the United States found unexpected newborn death was associated with a significant increase in use of procedures to avert or mitigate fetal distress and newborn complications (e.g., cesarean delivery, antibiotic use for suspected sepsis). These findings could reflect increased caution among clinicians or indicate more proactive attempts to identify and address potential complications.

Spine surgery trends

The downstream effects of COVID-19 plus weakened consumer confidence bolster several trends affecting growth in spine surgery, reports Vizient:

• A continued outpatient shift of the majority of cervical fusions, spinal decompressions and laminectomies, as well as an increasing outpatient shift of less complex lumbar fusion procedures.
• Improvements in minimally invasive techniques and pain management as well as broadening reimbursement (e.g., removal of lumbar fusion from the inpatient-only list in 2020) that will support the outpatient shift.
• Scrutiny of surgical procedures, particularly lumbar fusion, as payers continue to implement initiatives to reduce overutilization of spinal surgeries.
• Reductions in or loss of coverage as economic challenges persist and price sensitivity increases.

Solutions in Critical Care, Vizient, sign contract

Solutions in Critical Care (SCC) has been awarded a distribution contract with Vizient for respiratory products, effective March 1. “With the changing environment of medical device sales, national supply contracts and IDNs are the future,” said SCC Founder and President John Marmo. “The Vizient agreement makes purchasing easier, so more providers can take advantage of the innovative, high-quality and cost-effective product solutions our distribution network offers.”