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In the eyes of one medtech executive, the most impressive innovation in the field over the past couple of years “comes down to connection.”
In the past, medical device companies operated in silos, selling their various hardware and digital tools separately. Now, there is more of a focus on connection and interoperability, said Shaun Braun, chief information and technology officer at Zimmer Biomet, during an interview this month at Reuters’ MedTech USA conference in Boston.
“We were selling metal and plastic, implants and robots. And then we were selling apps and experiences for patients. What’s changed over the last two years is that connection — and how those are now connecting the digital world, through data, the physical world, with robots and navigation, and ultimately empowering and giving insights to the human world, which is the most important, with surgeons, care teams and patients,” he remarked.
He said this shift is reshaping how medtech companies deliver value. They are moving from selling isolated products to integrated systems that connect data, devices and care teams.
At Zimmer Biomet, this trend is taking shape through its efforts to connect its tech platforms, robotic systems and trove of patient data into a single, continuous flow of insights, Braun explained.
The overall vision is a closed-loop data environment that benefits everyone, he stated.
For example, Zimmer Biomet’s tools for the pre-operative space provide data that helps surgeons understand patients’ lifestyles and activity types so they can tailor consultations. It also offers tools for personalized imagining and surgical decision-making guides during the procedure. And after the operation, patients can use insights to compare their recovery to their peers.
When developing new devices and tech models that fit into this connected ecosystem, Braun said his company measures success by looking at the problems they are trying to solve.
“At Zimmer Biomet, we have a strategy to really attack the four most meaningful challenges in healthcare. One of those is awareness, one of those is safety, one of those is outcomes, and one of them is efficiency,” he declared.
The company tracks internal metrics that indicate success, but it prioritizes its customer-facing scorecards, which let surgeons, health systems and ambulatory surgical centers measure their own efficiency and outcomes using Zimmer Biomet’s tools, Braun added.
Success can look very different depending on the type of customer, he noted.
For instance, ambulatory surgery centers and hospitals’ surgical departments have very different patient volumes and cost structures, so Zimmer Biomet has to tailor its solutions and performance metrics to meet each customer’s operational goals.
As for what’s next in medtech, Braun said he is especially excited about robotics, especially in the wake of Zimmer Biomet’s acquisition of Monogram Technologies this summer. The acquisition expanded Zimmer Biomet’s robotic portfolio by adding a semi- and soon-to-be fully autonomous orthopedic robot.
“There is going to be ‘robot wars’ across industry — and medtech is going to be no different. There’s going to be a lot of catch-up that I think other industry leaders are looking to do to really make sure that they have a robot that can compete. So we don’t want to be in a robot war game,” he remarked.
Braun believes medtech companies will gain edge from solid data and AI-driven personalization — not just their hardware specs.
Photo: Grand Warszawski, Getty Images
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