Specialist
Former director at Digital Surgery Ltd (Medtronic plc)
Agenda
- Trends and developments in the digital surgery and robotics sector, exploring emerging importance of surgical debriefing
- Technological innovations such as AI, robotic-assisted surgery and robot interoperability
- Competitive dynamics among major players and systems including Medtronic (NYSE: MDT), Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG), Stryker (NYSE: SYK) and CMR Surgical
- Simulation and training software – adoption trends, commercial arrangements and long-term growth outlook
- Global adoption of surgical robotics and market penetration over next 5-7 years
- Sector M&A and potential tuck-in acquisitions of innovative upstarts
Questions
1.
Could you discuss the emergence of technological innovations such as AI and robotic-assisted surgery? How are these technologies disrupting the surgical robotic space, particularly in soft tissue surgery? What potential do these innovations have to improve product capabilities and enhance outcomes?
2.
How do you assess the relative innovation capabilities from legacy MedTech robotics players? Are companies such as Intuitive Surgical and Stryker still market leaders in innovation?
3.
Could you discuss the emerging importance of surgical debriefing? To what extent can improved debriefing processes increase the safety and efficacy of procedures in the operating room?
4.
Could you touch on some of the economic benefits from debriefing? Why might companies invest in something such as this?
5.
What are your thoughts on upstarts such as Theator.io, Digital Surgery and Surgical Safety Technologies? How much disruptive potential could there be from upstart players?
6.
Are there any key pain points of improving surgeon certification vs credentialing capabilities?
7.
How do you assess a given company’s efforts to put in place mediums, modalities and verifications to offer better ways to evaluate surgical procedures?
8.
How are you assessing the broader adoption of simulation and training software for robotic surgery? How do these tech platforms help improve clinicians’ precision in the operating room and enhance patient outcomes?
9.
Could you compare Surgical Science/Simbionix, CAE, Mimic and others in terms of relative simulation offerings? Are there any key areas of differentiation to note among the three?
10.
What’s important for us to understand about the commercial arrangements between some vendors such as Intuitive Surgical and Surgical Science/Simbionix? What’s the main decision criteria for robotic manufacturers’ around spend for these services and what are they receiving in the “backpack”?
11.
How do you expect the dynamics to develop between the OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] and the software players? Could the OEMs attempt to build out simulation software in-house ? What are some of the pros and cons of in-sourcing vs outsourcing?
12.
Is there any risk of another player with real-time 3D capabilities such as the Unity Software coming into this market? How much of a threat is there from a name such as Unity?
13.
Do you think the software simulation market will be a long-term growth space? How are you assessing the sustained need and demand for this service?
14.
Do you think any consolidation dynamics are likely to materialise between some of the OEMs and software simulation players? How likely is it that OEMs acquire tech capabilities inorganically, and are there any likely strategic buyers or take-out targets?
15.
How are you assessing the international adoption of surgical robotics? Over what timeline might less-developed countries adopt surgical robotics capabilities, and how much market opportunity is there internationally?
16.
What are your thoughts on remote patient monitoring and diagnosis technologies? How differentiated are these monitoring products, and how does this fit into the broader clinician education strategy for some of the larger manufacturers of surgical robots?
17.
Is there anything we haven’t discussed that might be especially important to highlight when thinking about the surgical robotics space and subsequent innovation trends?
