From a financial perspective, the market for orthopedic devices, procedures and tools has maintained steady growth over the last decade and is expected to see modest, single-digit growth over the next several years.
But what about from an innovation perspective?
This year’s Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovations Summit, which is focused on orthopedic technologies, is set out to answer that questions. On the first day of the summit, a panel of experts from various parts of the industry was asked about the outlook for innovation in the orthopedics sector over the next few years – is it excellent, good, nothing special or bad?
With the Rise of AI, What IP Disputes in Healthcare Are Likely to Emerge?
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
Here’s what they had to say:
David Cutler, Professor of Applied Economics at Harvard University
“I think it’s reasonable – not great but not terrible. There’s an increasing demand for orthopedic procedures as the population ages and becomes more obese. Secondly, there’s an increasing climate outside of the U.S. as more people move into the realm of being able to afford and wanting orthopedic care. But the major downside is the payment issue. We have people with particular orthopedic needs and we need to care for them – the question is can we match the appropriate treatment to the right patient? It’s not just can we cut back. We have errors in the system both ways – there are people who should be getting procedures who are not, and people who should not be getting them but are.”
Dr. Brian Donley, President of Lutheran Hospital (Cleveland)
A Personalized Approach to Medication Nonadherence
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
“As physicians, we always think of patient first. I think the climate is exciting. In the healthcare delivery system, we want to go forward and we need payers to come with us as we move more from quantity to quality and that same point needs to be made with medical device makers. Hopefully innovation will be paid, as we go forward, for improved quality over number of procedures.”
Dr. Viktor Krebs, Orthopedic Surgeon at Cleveland Clinic
There is an increasing environment for innovation, it’s just not going to be the same innovation we’ve had in the past. We’re not going to be innovating new implants, new treatments and new tools. We’re going to be innovating ways to treat people well at a lower cost. We’re going to be innovating toward affordable care.
Kelly Barnes, Health Industries Practice Leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers
“I would have been in the middle. We did a survey where we created a scorecard looking at nine countries and five factors in the innovation ecosystem. The U.S. has led in medical innovation in all of the past 10 years, but our trends are coming down. We still lead today, but when you look at all those areas, we are going to have a tougher environment. It’s a matter of, can you get that incremental innovation, and what’s the speed to market around that? We’re going to have to innovate not simply around science but really around business – around methodology and how we get to quality not quantity.”
Jim Capretta, Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center
“I would have voted somewhere between good and nothing special. The potential marketplace here is very large now and is going to be immense in next several decades, so purely from the demand side, if I were in the industry that would be the number one factor that I would consider. On the other hand, the policy climate is making it more difficult. From a consumer perspective, it’s about bringing the cost down and the value up, and innovation is going to be a huge factor in that regard.”
