Episode 236

A Special Glimpse into Medtronic's Recent Developments in Spine & Biologics Technology

Do you want to alleviate pain, restore health, and extend patients’ lifespan? Accelerate the transformation of the spine industry by making outcomes and technologies standardized and reproducible.

In this episode of the Global Medical Device Podcast Jon Speer talks to Carlton Weatherby, Vice President and General Manager of Spine and Biologics at Medtronic. Listen to Carlton discuss recent developments in spine and biologics technology at Medtronic, a global healthcare technology leader tackling the most challenging health problems with innovative medical devices that transform patient lives.

Some of the highlights of this episode include:

The spine business is an untapped opportunity that can impact patients across the globe with technology solutions being developed by Medtronic.
Would you rather live with back pain or have surgery? Basic spine surgery has advanced and improved, but there’s still a wide variability in the outcomes based on where patients live, training of the surgeons, and technologies used.
Surgeons have more confidence and patients have more confidence in the surgeons as they identify a path to improve the patient’s condition, alleviate their pain, and perform a procedure to achieve greater outcomes.
The golden age of medical devices due to innovation has made the regulatory environment more willing to collaborate. Regulators and the medical device industry try to help patients, but agree that there’s still room for improvement.
Through partnership, acquisition, and organic development, Medtronic already has the assets and pieces to determine if surgery makes sense for patients.
Medtronic has brought new products to the market to replace invasive spine surgery. An open procedure versus a minimally invasive surgery (MIS) takes more time and has more complications.
Medtronic is bigger than most, and 80% of medical device companies have 50 or fewer employees. Startups dream about an acquisition. Carlton advises them to start with a clinical value proposition connected to a clinical need for customers.

Memorable quotes from Carlton Weatherby:

“Spine is very much an untapped opportunity in terms of the impact it can have on patients across the globe with technology solutions like the ones we’re developing.”

“It’s still more of an art than a science and that’s where the opportunity lies.”

“Areas of technology advancements that we’re making allow us to support our surgeons to instill the confidence that they have going into it and especially their patients.”

“When you integrate new technologies, it’s not easy, especially if those technologies don’t talk together. That’s where an ecosystem truly becomes valuable.”