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The 10 greatest medtech advances of the 2010s

January 2, 2020 By Chris Newmarker

1. Robotic surgery expands

Intuitive Surgical da Vinci SP IDEA awards

The da Vinci SP in action [Image courtesy of Intuitive Surgical]

Pioneered by Intuitive Surgical (NSDQ:ISRG) through the early 2000s, robot-assisted surgery became a hot medtech area in recent years, with a host of major medtech companies seeking to break into the space.

“The 2010s served as validation of the robotic surgery hypothesis: Providers, payers and patients will embrace an expensive platform technology that effectively gives the surgeon superpowers in the operating room. The stage is set for a battle over platforms among the big players and a myriad of procedure-specific systems from smaller innovators,” said Thielman at Product Creation Studio.

Medtronic in 2019 unveiled its much-awaited Hugo RAS system — which the medical device giant touted as more flexible and cost-effective than systems currently on the market.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) closed the year by announcing its purchase of the remaining stake in Verb Surgical, following what J&J described as a successful strategic collaboration with the Alphabet (NSDQ:GOOGL) life sciences unit Verily. J&J’s Ethicon subsidiary in February inked a $3.4 billion deal to pick up surgical robotics pioneer Dr. Fred Moll’s newest robotic surgical play, Auris Health, and its FDA-cleared Monarch platform.

Intuitive, meanwhile, continues to innovate when it comes to robot-assisted soft-tissue surgery. Its da Vinci SP robot for single-port surgery has a tube that is about an inch wide and delivers fully articulating instruments: three that can manipulate things and one that’s a steerable endoscope. The robot is in the process of launching in the United States.

Robots are also hot in the orthopedic surgery space. More than six years after spending $1.7 billion to acquire Mako Surgical, Stryker is leading the way. Big competitors including Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy Synthes business, Zimmer Biomet and Smith & Nephew, which have either launched or are preparing to launch their own robots.

In December 2018, Medtronic closed on its $1.7 billion purchase of Mazor Robotics and its robot-assisted surgery platform for the spine. A month later, Medtronic launched its Mazor X Stealth robotic-assisted spinal surgical platform in the U.S.

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About The Author

Chris Newmarker

Chris Newmarker is the executive editor of WTWH Media life science's news websites and publications including MassDevice, Medical Design & Outsourcing and more. A professional journalist of 18 years, he is a veteran of UBM (now Informa) and The Associated Press whose career has taken him from Ohio to Virginia, New Jersey and, most recently, Minnesota. He’s covered a wide variety of subjects, but his focus over the past decade has been business and technology. He holds bachelor’s degrees in journalism and political science from Ohio State University. Connect with him on LinkedIn or email at cnewmarker@wtwhmedia.com.

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