Native Orthopaedics Wins 2025 ACE Award at AOSSM
PROVIDENCE, RI
July 11th - Nashville, Native Orthopaedics had the honor of being named the ACE Award Winner at the 2025 AOSSM Annual Meeting—one of the most prestigious recognitions in orthopaedic innovation.
The ACE (Accelerating the Cutting Edge) Award celebrates companies that are reshaping the future of sports medicine through groundbreaking technologies. For us, this is more than a win. It’s a validation of our belief that the operating room—and the patients it serves—deserve something better.
Left to Right: Dr. Elizabeth Dennis, Dr. Cassandra Lee, Sam Grossman, Christopher Ramsay, Dr. Christian Anderson, Dr. Brian Busconi, Brian Morley, Tom Gamache, Dr. Kyle Borque and Dr. Brian Lau
Dr. Christian Anderson, MD — Founding Surgeon, CMO
A Decade in the Making
For our co-founder, Dr. Christian Anderson, this moment was personal. Ten years ago, he stood at AOSSM as a young surgeon, beginning to shape a vision for smarter, more intuitive soft tissue repair. This year, he returned not just as a surgeon, but as an inventor and co-founder of Native Orthopaedics—bringing that vision to life.
Why Native? Why Now?
Every element of the Native Root system has been thoughtfully engineered to give surgeons complete control, efficiency, and confidence in soft tissue repair. At its core the Dragonfly™ advanced finger trap technology delivers instant, intuitive retensioning — simply tension, lock, and retension in one fluid motion for precise, secure fixation.
Guiding the way is the RootFinder™, a precision-engineered drill guide that redefines tibial tunnel preparation. With its lateral portal approach, single-handed operation, and anatomic guide arm, allowing unobstructed visualization and unmatched control.
Supporting technologies round out the system: the Spear Passer glides through dense tissue with an optimized jaw profile and robust needle, while accommodating a wide range of suture sizes. And when it comes to fixation, choose between a fast-cleating no-tie button or go an integrated soft button — no metal, no extra steps. The Native Root system isn’t just a collection of tools. It’s a fully integrated solution designed with the surgeon’s hands, workflow, and patient outcomes in mind.
This recognition from AOSSM validates what our team has believed from the start:
→ Soft tissue deserves better fixation
→ Tensioning matters
→ Visualization matters
→ Simplicity can be powerful
Gratitude to the Community
We’re humbled that the selection committee—comprising experienced surgeons, peers, and AOSSM leadership—recognized the impact of our technology across multiple dimensions:
✓ Improved clinical outcomes
✓ Enhanced surgeon control and confidence
✓ Efficiency in the OR
✓ A more sustainable healthcare cost model
To the judges, the AOSSM Innovation Team, and everyone who stopped by our booth or tried the tech: thank you.
Left to Right: Dr. Zachary Pharr, Dr. Lucas Teske, Brian Morley, Dr. Christian Anderson, Tom Gamache, Chris Ramsay, Sam Grossman
What’s Next?
Winning the ACE Award is not the finish line—it’s a launchpad. We’re committed to bringing Dragonfly and the Native Root System to more surgeons, hospitals, and patients across the country.
If you’re a surgeon, a partner, or just someone who believes in challenging the status quo—we’d love to connect.
Let’s rethink soft tissue repair, together.
— Team Native
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Native Orthopaedics Root System is intended to be used for suture (soft tissue) fixation to the bone in the knee for meniscal root repair. Dragonfly technology is protected by 17 issued patents, with 30+ additional patents under review including worldwide coverage.
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Native Orthopaedics is a privately held company actively fundraising pre-series A with a series A round anticipated in the coming months. Native Orthopaedics is committed to delivering innovative patient centric solutions to transform the sports medicine industry and make surgeries simpler and more reliable for health care professionals. Native Orthopaedics is a company built by a Surgeon for Surgeons. We are innovators and doers who want to help those with knee pain live life to its fullest. We’re committed to crafting creative, end-to-end surgical solutions and innovative tools that push the field of orthopaedics into the future with simpler, more effective solutions that preserve our native anatomy.
Native Orthopaedics has one commercial-stage solution, the Native Root System powered by Dragonfly™, a novel, next-generation, knotless suture technology — designed to enhance repair biomechanics and reduce clinical failure with its novel quad core trap within a trap architecture. The company also has one end-stage development product targeting ACL repairs, among other indications, and a robust pipeline with anticipated future product launches within the knee, shoulder, and ankle. To learn more about Native Orthopaedics, visit To learn more about Native Orthopaedics, visit www.NativeOrtho.com.
Investor inquiries can be directed to tgamache@nativeortho.com
Media inquiries can be directed to bmorley@nativeortho.com