Joe Mullings l Tech Delivery in the OR

Leverage of power shifting.
The tower & stack is prime real estate for tech delivery in the OR.
Hands down.

Real estate is established
Rails for the tech delivery have been built
Expect more activity from the towers.

That tech development and activity may come from more acquisitions and structured deals that will be tech-tenants on the install base and provide tremendous opportunities for emerging tech startups.

The install base of Olympus Corporation, Intuitive, KARL STORZ, and Stryker stacks in the OR are coveted real estate. We will have to wait to see how the ASC commercial efforts roll out for each of those players in the market. Stryker currently is best positioned for the ASC market.

The obvious. Imaging holds the highest volume and promises of actionable data.

Imaging in the form of surgical data is one area, but what about onboard video capabilities residing on the tower looking outward into the OR workflow monitoring of movement, care teams, device use, and overall surveillance for throughput and efficiencies is a whole other opportunity.

This also provides an easier path for a product platform that does not have to wrestle the same way that other technology platforms have to with IT, administration, cyber-concerns, and the headwinds of getting hardware installed in an OR.

Look at what Moon Surgical has brilliantly put into the Maestro system.

Intuitive DV5 platform made their intentions very clear. Their install base gives them immediate access to deploy their data acquisition in the OR.

Storz install base and the acquisition of Asensus. The Intelligent Surgical Unit (ISU), LUNA, and a brilliant software and hardware team has brought innovation to a metal and glass juggernaut. (PS – give Anthony Fernando the full reins please).

Olympus has the install base and has recently brought in phenomenal software & AI leadership at the C-suite & executive level. They are going beyond their metal & glass excellence. The recent announcement of the Swan EndoSurgical Inc. structured deal and you can get a sense of the commitment.

Stryker has their install base. Best-in-class sales organization, although recent rumblings and exits of high-level leaders have shown cracks. Their R&D capabilities in the required areas of expertise in the emerging requirements have become lighter in recent years.

This leaves an obvious critical gap in the OR from two largest strategics in medtech, Medtronic and Johnson & Johnson. Not previously acquiring or developing a stack/tower while having surgical assets like Ethicon Endo or the U.S. Surgical franchise was a big miss.

With MDT and JNJ having no install base with a tower. To get traction they will need to be selling against ISRG to get a robot into the OR, which means standing up a CAPEX commercial team which they have never done before and will run hundreds of millions of dollars for many years.

Surgical robots are great chess pieces, but the Queen is the tower, and she runs the board.