The real story in spine today is not who’s entering, but who’s exiting—with companies like NuVasive, Stryker, and Zimmer stepping back as structural risks mount. Zero-sum surgeon adoption battles, heavy instrumentation costs, and the shift toward motion preservation, ASCs, and IPM-driven procedures are eroding the old hardware-based model. The future belongs to physician-led innovators aligned with these shifts, not legacy fusion portfolios.

Why isn’t disc replacement the standard treatment in spine surgery? Despite decades of evidence and next-generation viscoelastic discs that replicate natural biomechanics, the field remains stuck in fusion-centric culture, economics, and training. Dr. Kingsley Chin explains why the barrier isn’t science — it’s leadership — and why surgeons must reclaim ownership of motion preservation before the future passes them by.