Powered by
Business Innovation Competition
The purpose of the ORS Business Innovation Competition (BIC) program is to provide the resources and opportunity for both early-stage companies, as well as clinicians, researchers, students of all levels with a great idea in the field of musculoskeletal research to participate in a program to validate the market potential of their technology and develop a commercialization plan through expert mentorship and feedback to assist in translating their ideas from bench to market. This session will provide an opportunity for interdisciplinary feedback and collaboration between industry, academics, and clinicians.
2026 Finalists
Lesley Lizalek, PhD, recently earned her doctorate in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her dissertation focused on developing a handheld tensiometer for direct measurements of ligament tension to guide soft tissue balancing during total knee arthroplasty and other orthopedic procedures. Dr. Lizalek is now the Director of Surgical Technologies at Tensense LLC, a startup focused on commercializing the tensiometer to bring objective measurements of soft tissue tension into the clinic and operating room.
Robert Winder is a 3x orthopedic technology founder and CEO of Zooly Labs, where he’s building AI-guided navigation technology to improve outcomes in total joint arthroplasty. Zooly’s smart sensor platform uses real-time 3D motion analysis to guide precise implant positioning without robots or complex registration addressing the adoption challenges of new technology, workflow, economics, and accessibility.
Previously, Robert sold Muvr Labs to Exactech in 2020 and scaled VuMedi to 175,000+ physicians, creating the largest surgical video education platform with partnerships across major orthopedic companies including Stryker, Zimmer Biomet, Johnson & Johnson, and Medtronic.
Through his advisory work with Alchemist Accelerator and Innosphere, Robert mentors early-stage healthcare technology startups on commercialization and clinical adoption strategies.
Robert is passionate about democratizing access to world-class surgical technology making precision outcomes achievable for every surgeon and every patient.
Dr. Annemarie Lang, PhD, is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Michigan. She earned her veterinary degree (Dr.) and PhD from Freie Universität Berlin and completed doctoral training in Regenerative Therapies, followed by postdoctoral research at Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the University of Pennsylvania, and Technical University Dresden. In collaboration with Joel D. Boerckel, PhD, she demonstrated that bone fractures initiate localized erythropoiesis, which modulates oxygen tension and supports tissue repair. Based on this discovery, the team has filed a provisional patent with the University of Pennsylvania and is advancing this therapeutic strategy toward clinical translation.
Howard Hillstrom, PhD, is a biomechanical scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur advancing objective measurement in orthopedic care. He is CEO and co-founder of Biomed Consulting, Inc., with Rajshree Hillstrom, PhD, MBA, to translate biomechanics research into clinically deployable technologies. He also serves as Senior Director of the Leon Root, MD Motion Analysis Laboratory at Hospital for Special Surgery.
Dr. Hillstrom has led more than 95 funded studies on lower-extremity biomechanics, producing over 144 peer-reviewed publications (H-index 44), 14 book chapters, and 10 patents. He is a lead innovator of the Foot Structure Measurement (FSM) System, a portable automated platform that converts subjective foot exams into quantitative metrics to guide clinical assessment and treatment. Development of the FSM system has been supported by SBIR funding from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, positioning the technology for clinical translation and commercialization.
Important Dates for the ORS 2026 Business Innovation Competition:
| September 2, 2025 August 4, 2025 | Launch Date for Executive Summaries |
| October 10, 2025 | Call for Executive Summary Deadline |
| December 10, 2025 | Teams are notified of selection |
| February 27, 2026 | Deadline - Top 4 teams will submit a 10-page in-depth business plan |
| March 2026 | Live Business Innovation Competition |
The ORS BIC program consists of three phases:
- Phase I involves the development of a team and submission of a 2-page maximum executive summary as part of your business competition pitch, please assess your market readiness as either early or developed (use this template). The ORS Innovation Committee spanning industry, academia, and clinical will review the initial submissions. The top three teams will be selected to compete in the final pitch event at the ORS 2026 Annual Meeting. The remaining teams will have the opportunity to compete in a poster pitch event (semi-finals) during the ORS 2026 Annual Meeting.
- Phase II involves the top 3 finalist teams writing a 10-page full written business plan and connecting the teams with expert mentors. Each team will be connected with two mentors who have extensive experience taking new product to market. During the second phase, the finalists will be encouraged to watch the Ready, Set, Pitch: Learn How to Effectively Communicate a Great Idea webinar which teaches strategies on how to communicate your idea for a medical product to investors, business development executives, and other decision makers in the life sciences industry.
- Phase III will be the actual pitch events held during the ORS 2026 Annual Meeting. The BIC will include two sessions (podium and poster session). The top 3 finalists (one individual from each company) will have the opportunity to pitch their companies during an oral presentation session (10 min presentation and 10 min Q&A/Feedback). The session will include a panel of expert judges who will score their oral presentations based on an established ORS BIC scoring system. The ORS BIC scoring system is derived from the Executive Summary template.
The top semi-finalists will compete during a poster session.
Expert judges will score their 3-min elevator poster pitch followed by a 2-minute Q&A session from the judges. The ORS BIC scoring system is derived from the Executive Summary template.
Following the competition, the ORS Innovation Committee will host a networking event to provide an opportunity for participants and ORS members to network with experienced academics, clinical partners, and leading industry judges and supporters. During the networking event, the top finalists will be announced. Finalists will also be formally recognized and presented with a certificate during the Closing Session of the 2026 ORS Annual Meeting.
The Call for Applications Closed on Friday, October 10, 2025.
BIC Task Force:
Abiraman Srinivasan, MPhil, PhD
Committee Member, ORS Innovation Committee
MediCarbone Inc
Manuela Ernst, PhD
Committee Member, ORS Innovation Committee
AO Foundation
Joshua Roth, PhD
Committee Member, ORS Innovation Committee
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Check Out A Previous Webinar
Ready, Set, Pitch: Learn How to Effectively Communicate a Great Idea
The objective of this webinar is to learn how to communicate your idea for a medical product to investors, business development executives, and other decision makers in the life sciences industry. The webinar is intended for those who submitted applications to the ORS Business Innovation Competition (BIC) and other interested entrepreneurs and academic scientists.
Speakers:
Nicholas Pachuda, DPM
General Partner
Neovate Capital
Organized by:
Evan Goldberg, PhD
Director, Scientific Affairs
Principal Research Scientist
Georgia Institute of Technology
