Medtronic has announced the US launch of Spine Essentials, a new platform of spinal implants and instruments
The goal of Spine Essentials is to help surgeons and their staff streamline the most common spinal fusions, according to Medtronic.
The company said it plans to do this 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 sterilisation, case set up and inventory management.
Spine Essentials was developed in collaboration with surgeons and administrators and launched today (May 19) at the Ambulatory Surgical Center Association (ASCA) annual meeting in Dallas.
Richard Wohns, orthopedic surgeon at neoSpine in Puyallup, WA and one of the physicians who collaborated with Medtronic to develop the platform, said: "As a surgeon who routinely performs these types of surgeries, it's helpful to optimise the implants and tools, so we're being as efficient as possible to provide the best care possible to our patients."
To develop Spine Essentials, Medtronic partnered with healthcare systems to evaluate unmet needs and identify efficiencies.
Spine Essentials 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 sterilise, set up and store, according to Medtronic.
Doug King, senior vice president and president of Medtronic's spinal business, which is part of the restorative therapies group at Medtronic, said: "Healthcare systems are under intense economic challenges and Spine Essentials is an example of how Medtronic can bring value to spine surgery by optimising costs and efficiency.
"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."