MCRA to Lead Panel at Medtech Insight's "IN-SPINE & ORTHOPEDICS" Meeting.

December 11(th), 2006, 7 p.m.: The Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas 

LAS VEGAS -- Musculoskeletal Clinical Regulatory Advisers, LLC (MCRA) will host a panel on legal, regulatory and clinical issues during Medtech Insight's "IN SPINE & ORTHOPEDICS" conference on December 11th, 2006.

Entitled Creating Your Legal & Regulatory Roadmap for Clinical Success, panelists will discuss the need to integrate clinical data, intellectual property protection and regulatory strategy to achieve greater efficiency in guiding orthopedic devices through the approvals process.

Anthony G. Viscogliosi, Chairman & CEO of Small Bone Innovations, Inc. (SBi), will moderate and lead the panel. Panelists will include several experts from MCRA, a "one-stop" source of consulting services for device manufacturers seeking to bring new technologies to market. They are: Dr. Gary Lowery, Executive Vice President and renowned orthopedic and spine surgeon; Tram Nguyen, Director, Intellectual Property, former patent attorney and examiner in the Medical Devices Unit at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; and, Richard Jansen, Pharm. D., Senior Regulatory Affairs Spine Specialist, who oversaw the first Premarket Approval in the spine industry of the BAK cage.

Delegates will learn firsthand about the current attitudes toward new orthopedic devices and the increasingly stringent regulatory environment in Washington, D.C. - and how their companies must adapt to these changing conditions.

Commenting on the event, Anthony Viscogliosi said: "Due to the rapid growth in the use and acceptance of orthopedic implants and devices worldwide, increasingly complicated legal and regulatory pathways have begun to hamper the ability of manufacturers to bring more innovative technologies to surgeons and their patients. I expect the panel to offer highly effective advice and field many questions from company executives who have without a doubt, struggled to clear these hurdles."

Anthony's brother, Marc R. Viscogliosi, President of the four-year-old MCRA, added: "During our 15 years or so of developing technologies and advising others on the process, the challenge of bringing life-changing products to market is becoming overshadowed by concerns about reimbursement, protecting intellectual property and satisfying a host of regulatory concerns. One of our fundamental goals is to persuade people, especially surgeons, that help is at hand - genius need not be sacrificed on the altar of expediency."

For more information on IN SPINE & ORTHOPEDICS conference, please visit Medtech Insight's website: http://www.medtechinsight.com/Agenda-inspine-03.html

For more information on MCRA, please visit MCRA's website: www.mcrallc.com