Tampa Bay medtech group plans to combine AI, wearable medical textiles & electronics with 100% U.S. manufacturing capabilities to bring USF innovation to market
TAMPA, FL, UNITED STATES, August 19, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Excite Medical, a Tampa Bay-based medical technology company and part of Orca Medical Technologies LLC, announced today that Orca Medical Technologies has secured an exclusive worldwide license from the University of South Florida Research Foundation to commercialize patented technologies developed by USF researchers involving biomechanical monitoring, rehabilitation and performance.
Among the potential applications is ARMOR-Knee, an AI-enabled wearable technology being developed around research conducted at USF to identify high-risk biomechanical movement patterns associated with ACL injury and train athletes to move away from those patterns before an injury-producing event occurs.
USF research recently received significant media attention after the university announced research demonstrating machine-learning models capable of identifying biomechanical conditions associated with ACL rupture and conditions preceding an injury event.
The long-term vision is compelling: What if wearable technology could learn how an athlete moves, recognize when those movements are approaching potentially dangerous biomechanical conditions, and repeatedly train the athlete to move differently before those patterns result in injury?
For Excite Medical, the opportunity represents more than licensing promising university research. The company believes its existing Tampa Bay manufacturing infrastructure provides an unusually direct path from university laboratory to commercially manufactured medical technology.
“We didn’t acquire this technology with the intention of sending it overseas and waiting for someone else to figure out how to manufacture it,” said Saleem N. Musallam, MHSE, Founder and CEO of Excite Medical and Orca Medical Technologies. “We already have the medical textile manufacturing. We already have the electronics manufacturing. We already have medical device regulatory experience, domestic and international distribution, and an established relationship supplying products to the Department of Veterans Affairs. We have an opportunity to take technology invented here at USF, develop it here in Tampa Bay, manufacture it here in Tampa Bay and ultimately distribute it around the world.”
From USF Research to Tampa Bay Manufacturing
The Orca Medical Technologies group brings together complementary manufacturing and commercialization capabilities that could allow much of the future system to be produced within the organization’s existing Tampa Bay operations.
U.S. Orthotics, a Tampa-based medical device manufacturer founded in 1979, manufactures orthopedic products including knee supports, spinal orthoses, cervical collars and other medical textile products. The company is also an established supplier to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs through the VA Federal Supply Schedule.
The group’s Electronic Manufacturing Company (EMC), established in 1996, provides another critical piece of the commercialization infrastructure, with capabilities that include printed circuit board assembly, circuit board population, custom cable manufacturing and small electronic assemblies.
Excite Medical provides the commercialization platform, bringing extensive experience in medical device manufacturing, regulatory affairs, sales, marketing and domestic and international distribution.
Together, those capabilities create the potential for a vertically integrated development and manufacturing model in which the wearable components, electronics, final assembly and commercialization infrastructure can remain American-made, with manufacturing centered in the Tampa Bay region.
“For me, one of the most exciting parts of this project is that this doesn’t have to become another great American technology that gets manufactured somewhere else,” Musallam said. “The intellectual property was developed at a major American research university, and we have the infrastructure to turn that innovation into a product right here in Tampa Bay.”
A Unique University-to-Industry Relationship
The licensing agreement represents another step in a growing relationship between Musallam, Excite Medical and the University of South Florida.
Musallam is a Johns Hopkins-trained biomedical systems engineer and Founder and CEO of the Tampa Bay-based Orca Medical Technologies group. He is also joining the University of South Florida’s Medical Engineering program as an adjunct professor, where he created and will teach Global MedTech Market Strategies, a course focused on the real-world process of moving medical technologies from innovation through intellectual property, regulation, manufacturing and global commercialization.
“The irony isn’t lost on me,” Musallam said. “I’m walking into USF to teach students how medical technology moves from an idea to intellectual property, manufacturing, regulatory strategy and ultimately the global marketplace, while at the same time our team has the opportunity to do exactly that with technology developed by USF researchers.”
Musallam said the relationship reflects what he believes can happen when universities and local industry work together not only to invent technology, but also to commercialize it.
“Universities are incredible engines of innovation,” he said. “But an invention doesn’t improve someone’s life simply because it exists in a laboratory or a patent portfolio. Someone has to engineer it, manufacture it, navigate the regulatory process, build the supply chain and ultimately put it into the hands of the people who can benefit from it. That’s where we believe our organization can add tremendous value.”
Keeping Innovation and Manufacturing in Tampa Bay
The commercialization effort could create a rare end-to-end Tampa Bay medical technology story: research originating at USF, commercialization led by a local medical technology company, medical textile manufacturing in Tampa, electronics manufacturing in Tampa Bay, and eventual distribution to markets across the United States and internationally.
The companies intend to begin with continued technical evaluation, engineering and product development, followed by regulatory strategy, validation and commercialization planning.
“This is exactly the kind of opportunity we built Orca Medical Technologies for,” Musallam said. “We want to take meaningful medical technology, surround it with the engineering, manufacturing and commercialization infrastructure it needs, and build it in America. In this case, we have the opportunity to do something even more special: build it right here at home in Tampa Bay.”
About Excite Medical
Excite Medical is a Tampa Bay-based medical technology company specializing in the development, manufacturing and global commercialization of advanced medical devices. The company is best known for its DRX9000 technology, installed in more than 1,200 hospitals and healthcare centers worldwide, giving Excite Medical extensive experience bringing innovative medical technology to healthcare providers across the United States and international markets.
Its latest innovation, the DRX9000-SL, is the world’s first non-surgical spinal decompression system to incorporate advanced automation designed to assist clinicians in delivering precise, repeatable and highly controlled treatments. The DRX9000-SL also represents the industry’s newest generation of non-surgical spinal decompression technology and is the first in approximately 20 years to receive both design and utility patent protection, representing a significant advancement in the design, automation and functionality of spinal decompression systems. The technology is designed to provide patients suffering from certain spinal conditions with a non-surgical treatment option.
Musallam has also pursued a deliberate strategy of vertical integration and American manufacturing. Through affiliated companies, the organization has brought key medical device manufacturing capabilities in-house, including precision medical textiles, electronics manufacturing, engineering and final device production. The January 2025 acquisition of Electronic Manufacturing Company added in-house capabilities including printed circuit board assembly, circuit board population, custom cable manufacturing and small electronic assemblies.
Combined with Excite Medical’s experience in medical device engineering, regulatory affairs and domestic and international commercialization, these capabilities provide the infrastructure to take advanced medical technologies from development through manufacturing and ultimately to healthcare providers around the world, while maintaining a commitment to American-made medical technology and Tampa Bay manufacturing.
About U.S. Orthotics
Founded in 1979 and based in Tampa, Florida, U.S. Orthotics is an FDA-registered medical device manufacturer specializing in American-made orthopedic and precision medical textile products, including knee braces and supports, spinal orthoses, cervical collars and other orthopedic medical devices.
The acquisition of U.S. Orthotics represented Musallam’s first major step toward vertically integrating the organization’s medical device supply chain. The acquisition brought critical medical textile manufacturing capabilities in-house while preserving a longstanding Tampa manufacturer and the skilled American manufacturing jobs and expertise associated with it.
U.S. Orthotics is also an established supplier to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs through the VA Federal Supply Schedule and has a longstanding history of supplying orthopedic products to VA healthcare facilities across the United States.
Now part of the same vertically integrated medical technology organization as Excite Medical, U.S. Orthotics provides established domestic expertise in the design and manufacture of wearable medical textiles. Together with the organization’s in-house electronics manufacturing, engineering and medical device commercialization capabilities, this creates a unique platform for developing and manufacturing the next generation of AI-enabled wearable medical technologies in the United States, with manufacturing centered in Tampa Bay.
Abby Pichman
Excite Medical
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