Paul McAfee, MD, director of the Baltimore-based Scoliosis and Spine Center of Maryland, has spent four decades at the intersection of spine surgery and product development, helping develop and advise companies that collectively represent roughly $8 billion in exits.
Now, he is making the case that the future of surgical navigation may not be a $1.5 million robotic system bolted to the floor, it may already be in your pocket.
Dr. McAfee, a full professor of orthopedics and neurosurgery who holds advisory roles with Globus Medical, Medtronic and Stryker, occupies a rare space in spine surgery: a clinician who operates, a researcher who publishes and an entrepreneur who builds…