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Final Program


Final Program

212 - Demand for Musculoskeletal Regenerative Medicine Treatments in the United States

Friday, February 28, 2025
5:00 PM - 6:30 PM MST

    Presenting Author(s)

  • MA

    Matthew R. Allen, BS

    Medical Student
    School of Medicine, University of California San Diego
    La Jolla, California, United States

Objectives: Regenerative medicine is a rapidly developing field with numerous novel therapies and a growing market which is expected to reach 49.41 billion by 2025. My study aims to quantify the demand for common musculoskeletal regenerative medicine treatments in the United States.

Design: I investigated demand for 4 regenerative medicine treatments offered by a reputable institution (Harvard) by recording the query fractions (QF) of Google searches (https://google.com/trends) originating from the United States that included the terms “PRP” (platelet rich plasma), “shockwave therapy”, “BMAC” (bone marrow aspirate concentration), or “prolotherapy” per 10 million total searches during the period of September 10, 2014 to September 10, 2024. Terms commonly searched in conjunction with the aforementioned terms were also recorded.

Results:

During the analyzed time period, search volume for PRP increased by 300% (QF 31 at inception to 93 by termination), shockwave therapy by 1100% (QF 1 to 11), and BMAC by 50% (QF 2 to 3). Search volume for prolotherapy decreased by 55% (QF 9 to 5). "Near me” or “injection” were in the top 5 most common additional query terms for each of the investigated treatments (ex. "PRP near me"). 

Conclusions:

This study demonstrates that demand for multiple regenerative medicine treatments is increasing and that patients often turn to the internet to learn about treatments or identify treatment locations. Irresponsible marketing or misinformation around regenerative medicine treatments could hinder the progress of the field and harm patients. 

Effective strategies to encourage evidence-based standards, responsible marketing, and misinformation countermeasures–including social media and internet monitoring–are needed. Future research should characterize what information is available to patients searching for regenerative medicine treatments online. For instance, researchers could analyze online clinics and identify what treatments are offered and what claims are made about each treatment. Such measures will protect patients and ensure that regenerative medicine maintains rigorous scientific standards.