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Below we’ve selected comments from the leaders of top orthopedic companies as they reported 1Q earnings, covering deepening utilization, healthy end markets and a dynamic OUS environment.
Driving Deeper Utilization Among Existing Customers
John Treace, Treace Medical Founder and CEO
Across our growing base of over 3,300 surgeon customers, we estimate Lapiplasty currently captures about 25% of their bunion-related procedure volume. These three new systems are intended to target the remaining 75%, representing a significant opportunity for continued penetration and growth.
Rob Ball, Shoulder Innovations CEO
Our ability to deliver this growth in 2026 is grounded in three strategic priorities, which include driving adoption among new surgeons, increasing penetration in our existing surgeon customer base to increase procedural volume, and adding products to our portfolio to address the remaining unmet needs of patients and surgeons. This includes both expanding indications and enabling technology.
Ivan Tornos, Zimmer Biomet CEO
Nationwide, our average rep is around seven cases. Our lead competitor is in the 16, 17 cases per week range. In the territories where we made switches, they’re already adding double-digit ranges for the number of cases. That’s pretty encouraging to see very quickly that improvement. No surprise. When you go from spending two to three days a week doing cases to five days, you can imagine the productivity is going to increase.
Some Disruption but Volume Healthy Overall
Kyle Rose, Enovis VP of Investor Relations
I think the way we’ve seen the year start, there’s obviously some weather [disruption]. There have been disruptions with things like cyberattacks on some competitors. We’ve got salesforce restructuring with another competitor. We think underlying market demand and procedure volumes are stable and healthy as we’ve seen over the last several years.
Tim Schmid, Johnson & Johnson EVP MedTech
We did see some procedural softness early in the quarter, but nothing that we would define as material. While certain regions, particularly here in the U.S., you will recall we experienced some periods of severe weather in late January and early February, that was largely consistent with normal seasonal patterns. And while there was some localized impact on procedure volumes due to poor weather in parts of the business, we would not categorize them as material or meaningful at an overall level.
Jason Beach, Stryker VP of Finance and Investor Relations
Procedural volumes were solid, supported by favorable demographics and the continued adoption of robotic-assisted surgery. The hospital CapEx environment also remains steady, and our capital order book remains elevated as we enter the remainder of the year.
A Dynamic OUS Environment
John Rogers, Smith+Nephew CFO
In China, we have intentionally restricted inventory in the channel at the end of last year. With the implementation of [sports medicine] VBP delayed by a few months, we saw strong demand for our products there during the quarter. We now expect VBP to be implemented at the beginning of the second half. We expect China to be broadly neutral to growth for the full year, making it the first time since 2021 that it will not be a major headwind to revenue growth.
Damien McDonald, Enovis CEO
It was definitely a slower start to the year compared with our Q4 momentum. There’s a lot of market volatility. There are doctor strikes, nurse strikes, pharmacy strikes, and waiting list increases. And still with all of that, we outgrew the market. I’d say the team executed really well in a very dynamic market situation.
Kevin Lobo, Stryker CEO
From 2016 to 2023, Europe was the biggest contributor to our international strength. More recently, we’ve seen Japan come on and really perform at a very high level. That’s our second-largest country outside of the United States, which is experiencing tremendous growth. Again, we’re going to see that again this year. We’re starting to get some approvals for the great product pipeline that we’ve been launching in the United States over the past few years.
Below we've selected comments from the leaders of top orthopedic companies as they reported 1Q earnings, covering deepening utilization, healthy end markets and a dynamic OUS environment.
Driving Deeper Utilization Among Existing Customers
John Treace, Treace Medical Founder and CEO
Across our growing base of over 3,300 surgeon...
Below we’ve selected comments from the leaders of top orthopedic companies as they reported 1Q earnings, covering deepening utilization, healthy end markets and a dynamic OUS environment.
Driving Deeper Utilization Among Existing Customers
John Treace, Treace Medical Founder and CEO
Across our growing base of over 3,300 surgeon customers, we estimate Lapiplasty currently captures about 25% of their bunion-related procedure volume. These three new systems are intended to target the remaining 75%, representing a significant opportunity for continued penetration and growth.
Rob Ball, Shoulder Innovations CEO
Our ability to deliver this growth in 2026 is grounded in three strategic priorities, which include driving adoption among new surgeons, increasing penetration in our existing surgeon customer base to increase procedural volume, and adding products to our portfolio to address the remaining unmet needs of patients and surgeons. This includes both expanding indications and enabling technology.
Ivan Tornos, Zimmer Biomet CEO
Nationwide, our average rep is around seven cases. Our lead competitor is in the 16, 17 cases per week range. In the territories where we made switches, they’re already adding double-digit ranges for the number of cases. That’s pretty encouraging to see very quickly that improvement. No surprise. When you go from spending two to three days a week doing cases to five days, you can imagine the productivity is going to increase.
Some Disruption but Volume Healthy Overall
Kyle Rose, Enovis VP of Investor Relations
I think the way we’ve seen the year start, there’s obviously some weather [disruption]. There have been disruptions with things like cyberattacks on some competitors. We’ve got salesforce restructuring with another competitor. We think underlying market demand and procedure volumes are stable and healthy as we’ve seen over the last several years.
Tim Schmid, Johnson & Johnson EVP MedTech
We did see some procedural softness early in the quarter, but nothing that we would define as material. While certain regions, particularly here in the U.S., you will recall we experienced some periods of severe weather in late January and early February, that was largely consistent with normal seasonal patterns. And while there was some localized impact on procedure volumes due to poor weather in parts of the business, we would not categorize them as material or meaningful at an overall level.
Jason Beach, Stryker VP of Finance and Investor Relations
Procedural volumes were solid, supported by favorable demographics and the continued adoption of robotic-assisted surgery. The hospital CapEx environment also remains steady, and our capital order book remains elevated as we enter the remainder of the year.
A Dynamic OUS Environment
John Rogers, Smith+Nephew CFO
In China, we have intentionally restricted inventory in the channel at the end of last year. With the implementation of [sports medicine] VBP delayed by a few months, we saw strong demand for our products there during the quarter. We now expect VBP to be implemented at the beginning of the second half. We expect China to be broadly neutral to growth for the full year, making it the first time since 2021 that it will not be a major headwind to revenue growth.
Damien McDonald, Enovis CEO
It was definitely a slower start to the year compared with our Q4 momentum. There’s a lot of market volatility. There are doctor strikes, nurse strikes, pharmacy strikes, and waiting list increases. And still with all of that, we outgrew the market. I’d say the team executed really well in a very dynamic market situation.
Kevin Lobo, Stryker CEO
From 2016 to 2023, Europe was the biggest contributor to our international strength. More recently, we’ve seen Japan come on and really perform at a very high level. That’s our second-largest country outside of the United States, which is experiencing tremendous growth. Again, we’re going to see that again this year. We’re starting to get some approvals for the great product pipeline that we’ve been launching in the United States over the past few years.
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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.
