Forma Medical Inc. announced today that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. Patent No. 12,751,749, titled “System for Joint Fixation of Extremity Bone and Related Methods.” The patent, which issued October 6, 2026, covers surgical methods for what Forma calls minimally invasive plate arthrodesis, or MIPA™, in which a plate is introduced and secured across a joint of the foot through small incisions rather than a traditional open exposure.

Fusion surgery, or arthrodesis, permanently joins two bones across a joint damaged by arthritis or deformity. It is a mainstay of foot and ankle reconstruction at the big toe, the midfoot, and the hindfoot. Surgeons have long faced a trade-off in how they perform it. Plates provide stable, well-established fixation but have traditionally required a longer incision to implant. Minimally invasive techniques shrink the incision but have typically relied on a screw-only construct. MIPA is designed to remove that trade-off.

The name echoes a shift in fracture care. Since the 1990s, orthopedic trauma surgeons have adopted minimally invasive plate osteosynthesis (MIPO), sliding fracture plates beneath the skin through small incisions to protect the surrounding soft tissue and blood supply. MIPA applies the same principles to joint fusion.

“The fixation surgeons trust, through the small incisions patients ask for. That is what surgeons told us they needed, and MIPA is designed to deliver both,” said Andrew C. Davison, CEO of Forma Medical. “This patent covers the method, not a single implant. The big toe was our starting point, with more than 1,000 procedures to date. The claims extend to other joints of the foot where surgeons already reach for a plate.”

“In urgent fracture care, we have evolved to less invasive surgical approaches for internal fixation, with less anatomic distortion and soft tissue dissection,” said Jesse F. Doty, MD, FAAOS, a fellowship-trained orthopedic foot and ankle surgeon at Integrity Orthopedics and Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Tennessee and a co-inventor of the patented technology. “Elective fusion has been slower to progress to an established equivalent until now. MIPA offers a defined, repeatable way to deliver more robust plate fixation through smaller incisions, providing the same benefits we’ve seen from minimally invasive surgery in other anatomic areas, but without compromised stability. I’ve used MIPA for MTP joint fusions in my own practice for years now. My experience and patient feedback have been highly encouraging, and I plan to submit my clinical outcomes for publication later this year.”

About Forma Medical

Forma Medical Inc. is a privately held orthopedic device company focused on developing differentiated solutions that combine strong biomechanical principles with minimally invasive surgical techniques. The company’s flagship OptimalMTP® system is designed to advance the standard of care in first MTP joint fusion by delivering stability, reproducibility, and efficiency through an MIS approach. OptimalMTP received FDA 510(k) clearance in 2024 and has been used in more than 1,000 procedures.

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