Ortho Kinematics

About Ortho Kinematics

Founded in 2006 by Adam Deitz, Ortho Kinematics, Inc. was a privately held healthcare diagnostics company based in Austin, Texas, that focused on spine imaging informatics. The firm is now listed as a deadpooled company. The company addressed the market for diagnosing spinal instability, a significant contributor to back and neck pain and a primary driver for many of the more than 500,000 spine fusion surgeries performed annually in the U.S.

Ortho Kinematics developed the KineGraph Vertebral Motion Analysis (VMA) system, designed as a more advanced alternative to the traditional flexion/extension X-rays used for over 70 years to assess spinal issues. The VMA system received its initial 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in early 2012 for lumbar spine assessment. This was followed by an expansion of the FDA clearance in August 2013 to include cervical spine (neck) assessments. The VMA system captured the spine in full motion using fluoroscopy, generating patient-specific kinematic graphs for each vertebral level. This data-driven approach aimed to provide physicians with more accurate, reproducible, and complete information to identify spinal instability that might be difficult to detect with static X-rays. Test results and video X-rays were uploaded to a HIPAA-compliant, cloud-based platform, making them accessible to clinicians on various devices without requiring installed software.

Throughout its history, the company secured significant funding to support the commercialization and expansion of its VMA technology. It raised a total of $60.5M over 14 rounds. A notable Series C financing round in April 2015 raised $9.6 million from investors including Medtronic, TEXO Ventures, and MB Venture Partners. This was followed by a $4 million debt financing round in January 2016. A key strategic milestone was a 2014 agreement with Medtronic, which allowed the major medical device company to promote the VMA test to spine surgeons, a significant step toward making VMA a potential standard of care. By early 2016, the VMA technology had been used to test over 4,000 patients. The company operated by providing its diagnostic services and technology to spine clinicians and surgery centers.