On Marketscale’s Healthcare Podcast, we often discuss how innovative technology is shaping the future of healthcare. On today’s episode, host Daniel Litwin turned the spotlight onto the hardware and software of orthopedics and how the convergence of the two is transforming care in this field of medicine.

Giving their unique insights were Allan Baird, senior account executive for ChartLogic, and Vinti Singh, marketing manager for CurveBeam. ChartLogic, a software under the parent company MedSphere, is a health IT solution for every aspect of care, providing an EHR, patient portal, revenue cycle management, and managed IT, with orthopedics as one of their specialty care areas. CurveBeam is an extremity 3D imaging company that designs and manufactures CT imaging equipment for orthopedic and podiatric specialties.

The challenge for many orthopedic care providers is interfacing specific pieces of orthopedic equipment and hardware into the software, Baird said.

“We get requests from our providers all the time that are looking for new innovation in hardware,” he said. “Our response is that we have to be able to adjust our software to match or meet those hardware needs.”

Baird and Singh both pointed to X-ray diagnosis as a prime opportunity for technology convergence.

But X-ray is a 2D look at a 3D problem, Singh said. CT and MRI technology help pick up where X-ray leaves off, but comes at a much higher cost.

“Technology is evolving at such a rapid pace, orthopedic practices feel the pressure to stay caught up, making capital investments to keep a practice cutting edge while budgets seem to get smaller,” Vinti said.