In 2002, Mizuho acquired Orthopedic Systems, Inc., or OSI, a company known for innovative surgical tables that contribute to enhanced outcomes during orthopedic procedures. In partnership with pioneering physicians, the company has more than 40 years of experience developing tables that allow surgeons increased access to the surgical site during procedures.
Now, the company has its sights set on being an operating room solutions provider, integrating all aspects of the OR. Here, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Mizuho OSI Greg Neukirch discusses where the company is going and what to expect in the future.
Question: How do you expect the company to change over the next three to five years?
Greg Neukirch: The vision of Mizuho OSI is to become the leading OR solutions provider, transforming our company from a table-identified organization into an integrated OR partner, with customers around the world. At the same time, we are still in the business of creating procedure-specific surgical tables that allow physicians the ability to deliver the best patient outcomes.
We segment our spine, orthopedic trauma, pressure management, and general table portfolios to make sure we continue innovating in those four areas. We believe Mizuho OSI has led these segments in innovation for the past 40-plus years and we want to maintain that. For example, the Jackson Table has evolved into what is now the Trios Surgical Table, giving surgeons more command of the procedure. Our newest innovation, Levó, allows surgeons to change the patient's head position during surgery without compromising stability.
In orthopedics, we believe the ProFx is the gold standard for pelvic reconstruction and trauma surgery, and with the Hana table, we are transforming hip replacements to allow for the anterior approach.
Q: Where are innovations focused going forward?
GN: We will be investing more in pressure management solutions and have partnered with Tempur-Pedic as a first step. We are also developing real-time pressure analysis tools to use during surgery, which could help to anticipate a problem post-surgery. We recently showed the technology at the AORN annual meeting and when we bring it to market, this technology will help providers get ahead of pressure-related ulcers.
Q: What market pressures are driving these changes?
GN: If we look at the advent of robotics in surgery, there are a host of companies that are making fundamental and complex robotic systems. We're looking at how we can help enable that technology with smarter tables. The last two tables we released had brains in them. We are setting our foundation to have tables that can interact with what we see as the future of state-of-the-art ORs.
In 2015, we acquired Trilux Medical , which is the backbone of our OR integration system. We envision an interconnected OR that will allow a physician to manipulate the patient's body during surgery, record necessary information, and transmit that information during the procedure. Robotic technology will then come in and interact with the other technology in the OR. We want to have a highly integrated space not only for our products, but for all physicians who perform cases there.
Q: How do your expanded offerings fit into value-based care?
GN: Value-based care is an investment piece of Mizuho OSI we haven't done before. We haven't acquired much quantitative data nor published the outcomes in the past. However, we know healthcare is moving in this direction, and are innovating with physician partners to enhance their surgical time and achieve better outcomes. We are also entering into publication work in partnership with a major university, which is a new era for Mizuho OSI.
One recent study out of Canada showed the reduced cost for medication when patients undergo anterior versus posterior hip surgical approaches. The outcomes were the same, but the anterior approach was associated with a reduction in the amount of pain medication patients used. We already knew that shorter surgery times meant less pain medication for patients, but the article helped us prove it.