Spine and orthopedic devicemaker leaders have shared updates about the state of their company's robots and strategies for the future.
At Stryker new hip software is helping the company's robotic success, CEO Kevin Lobo said in a July 30 earnings call. Overall, second quarter sales grew 7.9% year-over-year to $2.3 billion.
"Every quarter, the percentage of hips and knees on the robot is actually increasing," Mr. Lobo said, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha. "As more offerings came on the market, people got a chance to look at that and they clearly are preferring our technology and we're winning in the marketplace, and people are putting in their fifth system and their sixth system and their seventh system … The software changes we made with the 4.0 software for hip, the 2.0 software for knee with functional alignment, these have been really sort of quiet successes that have fueled growth."
For Orthofix CEO Massimo Calafiore, the ASC is the next step for the 7D Flash Navigation spine system, according to an Aug. 6 earnings call. The company reshuffled its staff to put the robot under the spine team.
"The ambulatory surgery center market for 7D is also of interest to us, since some spine surgery procedures have been slowly moving into the ASC settings," Mr. Calafiore said. "We believe the 7D system is well positioned for [minimally invasive surgery] procedures in the ASC, with a small relative footprint, efficient workflow and pricing. Although still in the very early stage, we've been able to gain some initial experience in the ASC, with a few accounts where we have placed a 7D system. With the evolution of our 7D strategy, we are more confident than ever in its increasingly significant role in our portfolio."
Finally, Globus Medical reported enabling technology growth in the second quarter with 59% year-over-year growth for installations and robotic case volume growth of 26%, CEO Dan Scavilla said in an Aug, 6 earnings call.
"Unlike a unit sale, we recognized revenue over the rental contract life," he said, as transcribed by Motley Fool. "We are adding NuVasive products such as Reline and Modulus to our enabling tech platform to expand customer options and plan on offering this later this year. Exiting Q2, our robot pipeline is healthy, and we are poised to have a great second-half robotic performance. We also continue to penetrate the market with Excelsius 3D imaging systems, and market interest remains high for Excelsius 3D as we enter Q3."