Medtronic plc has announced the U.S. launch of what it’s calling “Spine Essentials™”, a new platform of spinal implants and instruments designed to make the most common cervical spine fusion procedures more efficient and help hospital systems manage costs, while maintaining quality.
Background
Medtronic says its Spine Essentials platform is the result of efforts to partner with healthcare systems across the U.S. to evaluate unmet needs and identify efficiencies. The resulting implant sets include the most commonly used implant sizes for 1- and 2-level fusions of the neck (anterior cervical discectomy and fusions) and are sterile packaged with smaller instrument sets; thereby reducing the amount of inventory a hospital needs to sterilize, set up and store.
The company says the goal of Spine Essentials is to help surgeons and their staffs streamline the most common spinal fusions, by providing the exact tools in the right quantities needed to perform 1- and 2-level cervical spinal fusions, while reducing the costs and time required for instrument sterilization, case set up and inventory management.
One of the bigger claims is the reduction in processing and sterilization requirements, Medtronic citing examples such as the inclusion of 44% fewer instruments, overall 91% fewer items to sterilize compared with the full-sized instrument and implant sets and a 67% reduction in number of cases to sterilize.
Spine Essentials was developed in collaboration with leading surgeons and administrators and launched at the Ambulatory Surgical Center Association (ASCA) annual meeting in Dallas.
Physician comments
“As a surgeon who routinely performs these types of surgeries, it’s helpful to optimize the implants and tools, so we’re being as efficient as possible to provide the best care possible to our patients,” said Dr. Richard N.W. Wohns, orthopedic surgeon at neoSpine in Puyallup, WA and one of the physicians who collaborated with Medtronic to develop the platform.
Company comments
“Healthcare systems are under intense economic challenges, and Spine Essentials is an example of how Medtronic can bring value to spine surgery by optimizing costs and efficiency,” said Doug King, senior vice president and president of Medtronic’s Spinal business, which is part of the Restorative Therapies Group at Medtronic. “We’re committed to delivering successful patient outcomes more efficiently, but we can’t do it alone which is why Spine Essentials was developed with the input of physicians and hospitals.”
Source: Medtronic, plc
published: May 20, 2016 in: Launches / Withdrawals, Medtronic, Spine