7 companies using robot-assisted surgery to transform orthopedics

Clockwise from top left: Medtronic’s Mazor, Smith & Nephew’s Navio, Zimmer Biomet’s Rosa, and Stryker’s Mako robot-assisted orthopedic surgery platforms. [Images courtesy of companies]

It seems as if every orthopedic device company is getting involved in robot-assisted surgery — rolling out robots to assist surgeons operating on the knee, hip, shoulder or spine.

Two events in recent years especially signaled that robots were coming into their own in the space: Stryker spent $1.7 billion for Mako Surgical in order to sell robotic systems to aid knee and hip replacement surgeries, and Medtronic acquired Mazor Robotics for $1.7 billion so that it could expand into the robot-assisted spine surgery space.

Now all of the other big ortho device companies have either launched or are preparing to launch their own robots.

“Even if not necessarily proven to be better medicine, you can’t afford not to have an answer to robotics,” SVB Leerink analyst Richard Newitter recently told Medical Design & Outsourcing. “There’s a strategy now where having a robot is better than not having a robot.”

Here are seven companies seeking to make a difference in the space: