Launching ortho startups on OrthoAndSpineTools

I’ve shipped a few side projects as a spine surgeon — The Direct Care List, Ortho & Spine Jobs, this site — and I kept running into the same question after each one shipped: where do I put it in front of the right people?

Not “the internet.” Orthopedic and spine surgeons. People who will actually click, try it, tell me what’s wrong, or send a resident who needs a job. I wanted something closer to how we already talk in medicine — subspecialty rooms, case threads, device arguments — with a straight path to a product URL and a screenshot.

That’s why I built OrthoAndSpineTools.com. Tagline: Hunt for the Best. Eleven communities (o/Spine, o/Tech, o/Biologics, and the rest). Cases, biologics, implants, and a dedicated place to launch products. It’s early — seven posts total as I write this — but the launch flow is live, and I’ve already used it for my own stuff.

How a launch works

Sidebar → Launch product → /create-post?mode=launch. You need an account first. U.S. physicians can verify with an NPI; founders can earn a separate badge.

The form is a post with startup defaults baked in:

• Product title and story
• Product URL (link post — one click through to your site)
• At least one image or demo screenshot
• Startup topic tag applied automatically

The post shows up in three places: the community you chose (usually o/Tech), that community’s Product launches section, and the global /startups feed.

I used it this week for The Direct Care List — first post with the Startup tag. Link to thedirectcarelist.com, problem/solution copy, screenshot of the map:

A few weeks before that I posted Ortho & Spine Jobs in o/Tech: 160 open positions, subspecialty filters, compensation map from anonymous survey data at orthoandspinejobs.com. Different tag (Tech, not Startup), same idea — show the work to people who might use it or hire through it.

One rule I care about: no paid placement. Every page says we don’t sell sponsored threads or promoted posts. You post like everyone else.

MAUDE report trends

The feature I keep opening myself is MAUDE report trends — multi-year adverse-event volume from FDA openFDA MAUDE data.

Pick a specialty (Spine, Hip & Knee, Sports, …), pick a window (90 days through 10 years), and you get cumulative charts for the top implant brands by report volume. Search a brand — ATTUNE, HORIZON, PERSONA — for a synopsis with event and problem codes. Filters sync to the URL, so you can share a spine + 3-year view with a colleague.

The UI says what I’d say out loud: spikes are signals, not proof a device is unsafe. MAUDE is reporter-submitted — noise and signal mixed together. Still, if you’re a surgeon-founder comparing two pedicle screw lines, or pitching a fix for a failure mode that keeps showing up in reports, having the chart in the same tab as the forum beats downloading CSVs from FDA.

Our API hits openFDA, maps specialty filters to the same community slugs, and exposes brand search and synopsis endpoints.

What’s under the hood

React SPA on the front, API behind nginx (orthoandspinetools-api v1.0.0 at /api/health). Physician verification via NPI for U.S. accounts. Media through Cloudflare — up to 20 MB images, 1 GB video. /llms.txt and dynamic /llms-full.txt for crawlers; DiscussionForumPosting JSON-LD on threads. Dark mode with system preference.

Medical tools directory isn’t live yet — /api/tools still returns “coming soon.”

The home feed surfaces startup launches when they exist. Right now that’s the Direct Care List post with a “1 startup launch in this feed” callout:

Ortho-only, on purpose

Physician Forge is broader — physician-builders across specialties, essays, Discord. OST is narrower: ortho and spine only, with case discussions and device threads in the same building as product launches.

Surgeons and trainees who want subspecialty rooms instead of one giant ortho thread. Founders building scheduling tools, navigation, DPC directories, job boards, AI scribes — anything where the buyer or user is an ortho/spine clinician.

Where it stands

Small. Seven posts. One verified public profile (mine). Eleven communities with descriptions so the structure is clear before the crowd arrives.

I’d rather launch into a quiet room with the right tags than spray a link into a feed where nobody knows what subspecialty you mean.

If you’re building in this space: register, pick o/Tech (or your subspecialty if the product is clinical), hit Launch product. Bring a URL and a real screenshot. I’ll be in the comments.