Medtronic's spine segment has grown rapidly for the company, and it isn't complicating its strategy, CEO Geoff Martha said June 11 at the Goldman Sachs 45th Annual Global Healthcare Conference Call.
"Spine is more of a surgical business, and the strategy has been simple," Mr. Martha said, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha. "It's taken some time to do this, but shift it from implant-driven to, on the terms of competitive dynamics, to enabling technology, technology-driven. So, robotics, navigation, interoperative imaging, powered instruments, AI-based surgical plans, all integrated together to take a spine surgery from an art to a science, take variable outcomes to make them less variable, take average surgeons, make them good surgeons."
Mr. Martha said its spine technologies built a strong moat around the company's business and is surpassing its competitors.
"We have a 10,000-unit installed base globally of this large capital, whether it'd be robots, imaging, navigation," he said. "That's four times our biggest competitor."
The company is coming off of a strong fiscal year 2024 with $32.4 billion, an increase of 3.6% year-over-year. On top of that, Medtronic saw a full-year net income of $3.7 billion.