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BizVoice/Indiana Chamber – September/October 2014
INDIANA INGENUITY
PUTTING ITS
BEST FOOT
FORWARD
Nextremity Solutions
Transforming Orthopedics
By Symone C. Skrzycki
Primitive and painful. That’s how Rod K. Mayer,
president and CEO of orthopedic medical device
company Nextremity Solutions®, describes a common
approach to correcting hammertoe deformities in
which surgeons insert a sterilized, stainless steel pin
(known as a K-Wire) into a patient’s toe.
Ouch!
Nextremity offers a wireless alternative – the Nextra Hammertoe
Correction System, a two-piece metal implant designed to increase
precision and shorten recovery time. Innovative packaging provides
surgeons with the implant and insertion instruments in one sterile kit
for single-patient use.
What exactly are hammertoes? It’s all in the name.
Hammertoes involve a painful bending of the toe, resembling the
shape of a hammer. Approximately 60 million Americans suffer from
the condition, although the deformity is most often seen in female
patients, many of whom wear constricting shoes such as high heels.
Nextremity’s newest product addresses bunions, another painful
condition. Its Re+Line© Bunion Correction System debuted earlier
this year.
“This is all about lives being changed,” Mayer emphasizes. “We
provide advancements, techniques and technologies that allow patients
to be free from deformities and the pain caused by those deformities.”
Stepping up the game
Orthopedic surgeons Stuart Katchis and Lon Weiner founded
Nextremity in 2008 in Red Bank, New Jersey.
“(The thought was), ‘Let’s figure out how to make a better
product that will meet unmet needs for surgeons and most especially
for the patients,’ ” Mayer describes.
In 2012, the Nextra Hammertoe Correction System hit the
market.
The following year was pivotal: Mayer joined the organization
and the corporate headquarters moved from Red Bank (research and
development still takes place there) to Warsaw (home to management,
marketing, financial and sales activities). Netremity has 15 employees.
“We outsource all of our manufacturing and use some Indiana
firms,” Mayer remarks. “That’s a direction we’re going to be looking
at more carefully – more opportunities to partner with more Indiana-
based manufacturing companies.”
Podiatric surgeon Yolanda Ragland is a big fan of the Nextra
Hammertoe Correction System. Her practice, Fix Your Feet, focuses
on forefoot surgery (mainly hammertoe and bunion correction) and
has offices in New York City and Silver Spring, Maryland.
“Unlike most of its competitors, the product is a two-part scheme
allowing for each end to be inserted individually and then married,
allowing bone-to-bone union,” she explains. “Each end of the implant
is threaded, which virtually guarantees grip to the bone and ensures
optimal implant security.
“As a result of these features, the application process is simple for
all hammertoe correction approaches, including my inter-digital
approach or what patients understand to be a hidden or inside incision.
This approach is key to performing hammertoe correction with an
increased aesthetic outcome.”
Innovation continues as Nextremity plans to unveil several new
