New platform accelerates collaboration in technology evaluation, research, education, and innovation

CARY, N.C., Aug. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Academic Orthopaedic Consortium (AOC), the nation’s largest academic orthopaedic community representing 5,000 members, 200 university-based academic orthopaedic departments, and 100 health systems and private practices, today announced the national launch of POST™, the first national digital platform created specifically to connect MedTech and pharmaceutical companies with academic orthopaedic departments.

Developed over three years of collaboration between nationally recognized academic orthopaedic leaders and industry executives, POST represents a significant new layer of infrastructure for academic-industry collaboration. The platform was created to address two of healthcare innovation’s greatest challenges: efficiently connecting companies developing new technologies with the academic medical centers best positioned to evaluate, validate, educate, and responsibly introduce those innovations into clinical practice, while also advancing best practices that help reduce unnecessary delays in technology evaluation and adoption.

Powered by intelligent matching technology, POST enables organizations to create comprehensive profiles and instantly connect with highly relevant collaborators based on clinical expertise, research interests, educational priorities, innovation initiatives, and technology evaluation capabilities—dramatically reducing the time required to identify the right academic or industry partner. By strengthening collaboration between academic medicine and industry, POST also helps create earlier access to emerging technologies, expands opportunities for research and publication, enhances resident and fellow education, and supports the responsible acceleration of innovation into patient care.

The launch follows one of the largest national assessments examining collaboration between academic orthopaedic departments and the medical technology industry. Through surveys and strategic discussions led by the AOC MedTech Advisory Council, academic leaders identified significant barriers slowing innovation. Technology evaluation processes averaged more than 270 days, only 13% of institutions reported evaluation timelines under 90 days, and only 12%believed their current processes efficiently minimized delays. More than 90% identified purchasing and administrative processes as the primary barriers to technology adoption and called for national best practices to improve collaboration.

“POST represents a fundamental shift in how academic medicine and industry discover one another and work together,” said Michael R. Gagnon, MBA, Founder and CEO of the Academic Orthopaedic Consortium. “For decades, companies have struggled to identify the right academic partners, while academic departments have lacked an efficient, standardized way to engage industry. POST changes that by creating the nation’s first digital platform where organizations can quickly identify one another, build trusted relationships, and accelerate innovation with the shared goal of improving patient care.”

POST also serves as the digital foundation for the newly established AOC Technology Evaluation Network, a national collaborative of academic and industry leaders focused on technology evaluation, innovation, and best practices. Forty-six leading academic orthopaedic departments have already identified Technology Evaluation Leaders who, together with leaders from AOC’s participating industry partners, will help advance best practices, establish more efficient evaluation pathways, and strengthen collaboration across academic medicine and industry. The goal is to help reduce unnecessary delays in technology evaluation while increasing opportunities for research, education, publication, and responsible innovation.

The platform was shaped through the work of the AOC MedTech Advisory Council and the leadership of academic and industry experts committed to improving collaboration throughout orthopaedics. Founding industry collaborators helping shape POST include Arthrex, DePuy Synthes, Medacta, MY01, Smith+Nephew, Stryker, and Think Surgical, with additional organizations continuing to join the platform.

“Academic medicine and industry ultimately have a shared goal to improve patient care through responsible innovation,” said Joshua J. Jacobs, MD, Co-Chair of the AOC MedTech Advisory Council. “POST provides a national framework that enables academic institutions and industry to collaborate more effectively, share best practices, strengthen research partnerships, and accelerate the responsible evaluation and adoption of new technologies.”

“Identifying the right academic collaborators and navigating highly variable institutional processes has long been a challenge for the MedTech industry,” said Stuart Simpson, Co-Chair of the AOC MedTech Advisory Council. “POST creates a trusted national gateway that brings together industry and academic medicine in a way that is more transparent, efficient, and scalable than ever before.”

The Academic Orthopaedic Consortium is now inviting academic orthopaedic departments, MedTech companies, and pharmaceutical organizations to establish organizational profiles on POST and participate in this growing national platform for collaboration, technology evaluation, research, education, and innovation.

To learn more or establish an organizational profile, visit POSTMedTech.com.

About the Academic Orthopaedic Consortium

Founded in 2005, the Academic Orthopaedic Consortium (AOC) is the nation’s largest academic orthopaedic community, representing leading university-based academic orthopaedic departments, health systems, private practices, orthopaedic leaders, researchers, faculty, and administrative executives across the country. Through education, leadership development, research, innovation, and strategic collaboration, the AOC works to strengthen academic orthopaedics and improve musculoskeletal patient care.

POST™: POSTMedTech.com

Academic Orthopaedic Consortium: AOC

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SOURCE Academic Orthopaedic Consortium