Transcript

Hey everyone, it's Brittany Erickson and David Forney with Floodgate Medical. We were lucky enough to attend the 121st annual American Urological Association meeting that brought the entire urology world to Washington DC And this year, honestly, what a week. That's right from the second exhibit hall opened, the energy was nonstop. Packed booths, live demos, standing room only conversations. It really felt like urology innovation is accelerating faster than ever. And every year one of our favorite. Parts of a UA's getting to connect with the amazing medtech rock stars across the industry. This includes founders, physicians, engineers, clinical specialists, the commercial teams. Behind the teams, you could feel the passion everywhere. Everyone's focused on the same thing, improving patient care and pushing this industry forward. And this year especially there was a huge focus on less invasive therapy, robotics, AI, diagnostics, digital health, and workflow efficiency. So today we want to highlight a few companies and. Friends that really stood out to us during a UA 2026. So let's start with Biobot Surgical. Biobot definitely generated a lot of buzz this year and their robotic assisted platform focused on precision navigation for minimally invasive prostate interventions. What's exciting about Biobot is their focus on image guided precision, helping physicians perform more targeted procedures with enhanced accuracy. You could really feel the excitement around technologies that help improve prostate cancer targeting while potentially reducing procedural variability. And honestly, robotics overall was one of the hottest conversations throughout the meeting. Every year we're seeing systems become more intelligent, more compact, and more procedure specific. Another company had a lot of attention this year was Bioprotect. Bioprotect. Continues building momentum around their space or technology designed to help protect healthy tissue during prostate radiation therapy. And this fits perfectly into one of the biggest themes we saw a this year. Improving patient outcomes while minimizing treatment related side effects. Potions are increasingly looking for technologies that not only improve procedural precision but also preserve quality of life for patients during and after treatment. And you could tell there's real enthusiasm around technologies that help make prostate cancer treatment safer and more patient friendly. Speaking of patient and friendly innovation, let's talk about BPH because BPH innovation was everywhere at AUAR. Ovarium led this conversation by bringing his fresh, minimally invasive approach to treating BPH with their Pro V system, and there was definitely a lot of conversation around it this year. What makes Pro Verum exciting is the focus on relieving urinary obstruction while also preserving sexual function, which continues to be one of the biggest priorities for both physicians and patients. The market is clearly shifting towards therapies that can deliver symptom relief without the invasiveness, downtime, or side effect profile associated with more traditional procedures. Patients want options, physicians want flexibility, and companies like program or helping expand what treatment can look like moving forward. Another company that's gotten a lot of attention in the BPH space was Zen Flow. Zen Flow Spring System generated a ton of interest this year because of its minimally invasive design approach. What's interesting is how many companies are now approaching. PH from completely different angles. Some are using implants, some are using thermal therapies, others are focused on mechanical reshaping. But the common goal is improving outcomes while making treatment easier on patients. And that was honestly one of the coolest parts about a UA this year, seeing how competitive innovation has become in this category. Britney I absolutely and completely agree. Now let's move into diagnostics and digital health because that was another major theme this year throughout the entire meeting brought euro turned heads and modernizing Euro dynamics with their Glean system, which offers a wireless catheter free approach to bladder pressure testing. Traditional urodynamics can be uncomfortable and inconvenient for patients. So seeing companies rethink the entire testing experience is really exciting and providers seem genuinely interested in technologies that improve patient comfort. While also delivering more natural, potentially more accurate diagnostic data, which ties directly into another company that we want to highlight, Minsa Health. Minsa is bringing digital health and remote patient monitoring into urology diagnostics through their smart uroflowmetry platform. Remote monitoring continues to gain momentum across healthcare overall. And Mince is doing a really great job at creating technology that's both patient friendly and clinically useful. And honestly, patients increasingly expect healthcare to become more convenient and connected companies. You can simplify the patient experience while still delivering strong clinical insights are going to continue gaining traction. Absolutely. Another company that made an impression diagnostic this year was Pacific Edge Diagnostics. Pacific Edge continues generally strong momentum around their CX bladder technology which helps support non invasive bladder cancer detection and monitoring their genomic urine testing. Bladder cancer diagnostics and surveillance remain major challenges in urology. So seeing continued advancement in genomic testing was really exciting and for precision medicine overall was a huge topic throughout USA this year. Physicians wanted smarter tools that help guide clinical decisions while potentially reducing unnecessary procedures and improving efficiency. You could definitely fill the industry moving toward more personalized and data-driven care models. Now let's talk about another category that had a lot of traffic this year. Single use endoscopy companies like Pussin, Dornier, Medtech and Macro Alex had a ton of attention throughout the exhibit hall. Single use Futuroscope technology has evolved dramatically over the last several years. The image quality keeps improving. Ergonomics are improving, and hospitals are continuing to evaluate workflow efficiency and infection prevention benefits. And from a hospital operations standpoint, there's growing interest around reducing reprocessing burdens, improving scope availability, and managing maintenance costs associated with reusable systems. It's become a very competitive category, which is great because competition continues driving innovation. And honestly, you could fill up a minimum all over the conference floor, whether it was robotics, diagnostics, BPH. Therapies, digital health, or disposable technologies. Innovation is happening everywhere in urology right now. But beyond the technology itself, what really makes a UA special is the people. And one thing was extremely clear. The passionate industry is contagious. Every conversation we have, whether it's startups, physicians, investors, or large strategic companies, you could tell people genuinely care about improving patient care and advancing medicine. And that's why we love being part of the space. The innovation is incredible, but the people behind it? Ohh, I'd make this industry so exciting, so exciting. We want to give a huge thank you to everyone who took the time to connect with us throughout the week. We love meeting so many Med tech rockstars and hearing about all the incredible work happening across urology. And with a 2026 officially wrapped up, we'll see you next year in San Diego. Everywhere it prevents everywhere anyway. Everywhere everywhere. More compact and more procedure for shoot companies that can simply ohh. Bladder cancer diagnostics and surveillance remain a major challenges. AutoCAD back dramatically over the last several years. That's how we're all yours. The passion is the industry is conducted from. Or we could be like in San Diego. Like could try to be funny.