Vice President of Global Knee Marketing at Stryker Orthopaedics Paul Berman discusses the Triathlon Custom Fit Knee featuring ShapeMatch Technology and how it will impact the orthopedic device market.
Q: How does the technology work?
Paul Berman: The Triathlon Custom Fit Knee featuring ShapeMatch Technology allows surgeons to size and position knee implants based upon their patient's unique anatomies using customized ShapeMatch guides.
This technology is designed to customize the knee replacement procedure to each patient through the use of a 3D imaging technique that provides greater accuracy than other patient-specific imaging offerings and software that creates a customized pre-operative surgical plan for each patient.
Upon surgeon review and approval of the plan, single-use ShapeMatch Cutting Guides are developed for each patient based on the patient’s MRI or CT scans. We're seeing 95-98 percent reproducibility of ShapeMatch cutting guide placement amongst surgeons, indicating excellent reliability.
Q: In what ways can this technology benefit the providers?
PB: Stryker's ShapeMatch Technology has the potential to positively impact hospital costs associated with various stages of the patient care continuum during knee surgery. With a 75 percent reduction in instrumentation, ShapeMatch Technology may produce faster OR turnover time which may increase the potential capacity for additional procedures per day. In addition, a reduction in instrumentation means that fewer materials will need to undergo sterilization or reprocessing post surgery.
Q: What impact will this type of technology have on orthopedics?
PB: With long-term demand for total knee surgery projected to continue increasing, the ability to contain costs and increase non-operative time efficiencies is important in meeting the demand for total knee surgery. ShapeMatch Technology has the potential to positively impact hospital costs, as well as efficiencies which may increase the potential capacity for additional procedures per day. ShapeMatch bolsters Stryker's portfolio of Simpler Solutions which includes Triathlon Single Use Knee Instrumentation and Triathlon TS.
Q: How do you expect the European launch of the technology to impact the company and the market?
PB: The launch of ShapeMatch in Europe will allow Stryker to provide surgeons and hospitals with greater efficiencies in total knee replacement procedures. ShapeMatch will complement Stryker's Triathlon Knee System in key European markets and will help to expand Stryker's overall market share in Europe.
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