Copy to clipboard 
Exactech is a top 10 player in joint replacement with a unique take on enabling technology. ExactechGPS is the industry’s only navigation solution that covers shoulders, knees and ankles. Unlike virtually all of its competition, the system comes with no capital cost and no service fees. ExactechGPS also addresses several other longstanding pain points for orthopedic surgeons and could help technology reach more mainstream adoption.
We spoke to Adam Hayden, Exactech’s Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of Large Joints, about the company’s approach to technology and how it can help surgeons achieve better outcomes in challenging procedures. Excerpts from our conversion are below, edited for clarity and length.
What can ExactechGPS offer surgeons?
Mr. Hayden: I think most surgeons would tell you, there’s a few reasons for using technology. One is that patients are asking for it, so surgeons feel like they need to have it. Some of them need help with the procedure but I think more and more the answer is becoming that surgeons need to know what the individual plan is for that patient. All the improvements over the years in mechanical instruments, navigation and even robotics don’t answer that question: what’s the best thing for this patient?
That’s why we put ExactechGPS in the Active Intelligence category. We harness a lot of clinical data to give recommendations and predictions on outcomes. In shoulder, we have our Predict+ machine learning algorithm. We hired data scientists to look at around 15,000 patients’ worth of clinical data in our Equinox database. We asked them to tell us the best predictors of outcome and show them graphically.
We’re just at the beginning stages of this. I think this is going to be the next huge stepping stone that we’re going to take in orthopedics overall.
What has adoption of ExactechGPS been like in your various markets?
Mr. Hayden: Use in our knee replacement cases is somewhere 25% to 30% and we’re about 50% in shoulders. We’re about to launch ankle and we believe we’re the first navigation solution in the ankle space altogether. That’s pretty remarkable, given the complexity and difficulty of that procedure.
That’s why patient specific instrument jigs have taken off in the ankle space, because it is a challenging procedure. We think that there is a need to have both PSI and GPS. It makes a lot of sense too, because we already have the ecosystem and the hardware. We have computer in the room or the hospital, and we use the same tracker. Just to turn on the machine again versus having to bring in something all new.
We don’t have anything on the hip side yet. As we get into things like hip resurfacing, we’ve got an exclusive distribution partnership with JointMedica. I think that navigation technology is going to have to play a critical role. I would argue it should even be mandated.
What makes the ankle replacement opportunity so unique for ExactechGPS?
Mr. Hayden: Expertise resides in the hands of a few specialists. Even among those specialists, it is such a rarity to have an ankle-specific practice. Knees have a million procedures a year, everybody’s doing knee. If you delve into ankle, you should be doing a couple of dozen at least a year to keep your skills up and that’s difficult. It’s almost impossible, given the market size today. So, I think the procedure and market lend themselves to technology.
What’s the model for placing GPS systems?
Mr. Hayden: We have no capital costs, and we have no service fees of any kind. The only revenue that we get from the procedure is from the disposables.
The business case is that we believe that providing surgeons with service without an additional cost, knowing that the ASC cases are proliferating, will be seen as valuable. We will secure business and improve patient outcomes by not charging. For the most part, we’re the only company using this model. I would say most are trying to get some kind of capital revenue, and they’re trying to get something from their service fee.
I also would say that it’s less complicated. You don’t need two people in the room to run GPS. You don’t need a robotics specialist and a product specialist. You’ve got it all under one under one roof in one rep, and we train them that way to do both. It’s a really straightforward, simple system. It doesn’t require a lot of setup. Doesn’t require complete re-orchestration of who stands where in the room.
Where will the overall adoption of navigation be in ortho in the next few years? Could it be as high as 80% in 10 years?
Mr. Hayden: It’s a great question, because if you asked me that 10 or 15 years ago when we started doing navigation, I would have said there’s no way that it’ll be as low as it remains today. I don’t get into my car without turning on a GPS app. I think that’s going to be the differentiator. When you give surgeons not only the ability to execute their plan, but you give them the plan to execute, and you convince them that accuracy does matter, then I think the game changes.
Exactech is a top 10 player in joint replacement with a unique take on enabling technology. ExactechGPS is the industry’s only navigation solution that covers shoulders, knees and ankles. Unlike virtually all of its competition, the system comes with no capital cost and no service fees. ExactechGPS also addresses several other longstanding...
Exactech is a top 10 player in joint replacement with a unique take on enabling technology. ExactechGPS is the industry’s only navigation solution that covers shoulders, knees and ankles. Unlike virtually all of its competition, the system comes with no capital cost and no service fees. ExactechGPS also addresses several other longstanding pain points for orthopedic surgeons and could help technology reach more mainstream adoption.
We spoke to Adam Hayden, Exactech’s Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of Large Joints, about the company’s approach to technology and how it can help surgeons achieve better outcomes in challenging procedures. Excerpts from our conversion are below, edited for clarity and length.
What can ExactechGPS offer surgeons?
Mr. Hayden: I think most surgeons would tell you, there’s a few reasons for using technology. One is that patients are asking for it, so surgeons feel like they need to have it. Some of them need help with the procedure but I think more and more the answer is becoming that surgeons need to know what the individual plan is for that patient. All the improvements over the years in mechanical instruments, navigation and even robotics don’t answer that question: what’s the best thing for this patient?
That’s why we put ExactechGPS in the Active Intelligence category. We harness a lot of clinical data to give recommendations and predictions on outcomes. In shoulder, we have our Predict+ machine learning algorithm. We hired data scientists to look at around 15,000 patients’ worth of clinical data in our Equinox database. We asked them to tell us the best predictors of outcome and show them graphically.
We’re just at the beginning stages of this. I think this is going to be the next huge stepping stone that we’re going to take in orthopedics overall.
What has adoption of ExactechGPS been like in your various markets?
Mr. Hayden: Use in our knee replacement cases is somewhere 25% to 30% and we’re about 50% in shoulders. We’re about to launch ankle and we believe we’re the first navigation solution in the ankle space altogether. That’s pretty remarkable, given the complexity and difficulty of that procedure.
That’s why patient specific instrument jigs have taken off in the ankle space, because it is a challenging procedure. We think that there is a need to have both PSI and GPS. It makes a lot of sense too, because we already have the ecosystem and the hardware. We have computer in the room or the hospital, and we use the same tracker. Just to turn on the machine again versus having to bring in something all new.
We don’t have anything on the hip side yet. As we get into things like hip resurfacing, we’ve got an exclusive distribution partnership with JointMedica. I think that navigation technology is going to have to play a critical role. I would argue it should even be mandated.
What makes the ankle replacement opportunity so unique for ExactechGPS?
Mr. Hayden: Expertise resides in the hands of a few specialists. Even among those specialists, it is such a rarity to have an ankle-specific practice. Knees have a million procedures a year, everybody’s doing knee. If you delve into ankle, you should be doing a couple of dozen at least a year to keep your skills up and that’s difficult. It’s almost impossible, given the market size today. So, I think the procedure and market lend themselves to technology.
What’s the model for placing GPS systems?
Mr. Hayden: We have no capital costs, and we have no service fees of any kind. The only revenue that we get from the procedure is from the disposables.
The business case is that we believe that providing surgeons with service without an additional cost, knowing that the ASC cases are proliferating, will be seen as valuable. We will secure business and improve patient outcomes by not charging. For the most part, we’re the only company using this model. I would say most are trying to get some kind of capital revenue, and they’re trying to get something from their service fee.
I also would say that it’s less complicated. You don’t need two people in the room to run GPS. You don’t need a robotics specialist and a product specialist. You’ve got it all under one under one roof in one rep, and we train them that way to do both. It’s a really straightforward, simple system. It doesn’t require a lot of setup. Doesn’t require complete re-orchestration of who stands where in the room.
Where will the overall adoption of navigation be in ortho in the next few years? Could it be as high as 80% in 10 years?
Mr. Hayden: It’s a great question, because if you asked me that 10 or 15 years ago when we started doing navigation, I would have said there’s no way that it’ll be as low as it remains today. I don’t get into my car without turning on a GPS app. I think that’s going to be the differentiator. When you give surgeons not only the ability to execute their plan, but you give them the plan to execute, and you convince them that accuracy does matter, then I think the game changes.
You’ve reached your limit.
We’re glad you’re finding value in our content — and we’d love for you to keep going.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to orthopedic business intelligence.
ME
Mike Evers is a Senior Market Analyst and writer with over 15 years of experience in the medical industry, spanning cardiac rhythm management, ER coding and billing, and orthopedics. He joined ORTHOWORLD in 2018, where he provides market analysis and editorial coverage.
