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The fast-growing foot and ankle market is increasingly competitive, but lacks well-defined standards of care and consensus on procedural techniques. Companies are trying to solve those problems as elective procedures shift toward care settings that demand maximal efficiency for time, space and cost.
Michael Rankin is a foot and ankle industry veteran with nearly 15 years at Stryker, where he is Vice President of Marketing and Medical Education, Foot and Ankle.
“If you look at hips and knees, there’s two or three competitors,” said Mr. Rankin. “You look at shoulders; there are two or three competitors. We have 17 competitors that we think about on a regular basis. One of the things that I love about foot and ankle is how much activity is there.”
We spoke to Mr. Rankin following Stryker’s launch of Prophecy Footprint, an expansion of the company’s Prophecy Surgical Planning system. We touched on the roles of enabling technology in foot and ankle and the need to innovate as procedures move to outpatient settings.
Our conversation is excerpted below and edited for length and clarity.
What is unique about the Prophecy Surgical Planning System?
Mr. Rankin: Currently, 90% of all our total ankles are done using Prophecy instrumentation. What’s unique about Prophecy is it is used across our entire spectrum of total ankles. Our system is really sophisticated. We can use patient-specific instrumentation and patient-specific planning for all our systems, regardless of whether it’s primary, flat-top, stemmed or implant revision. We’re good to go.
How does the Prophecy Footprint addition help surgeons?
Mr. Rankin: Remember, there are a million knees done every year. There are about 500,000 hips and 200,000 shoulders. There are 15,000 ankles done. So, the average surgeon does six procedures a year, and the ankle is a very complex joint. There are a lot of adjacent procedures that need to be done to coincide with this.
We are so excited about Prophecy Footprint because now, using our pre-planning software allows surgeons to think about all adjacent procedures before they get into the surgical case. So they have not just a plan for their ankle, but they have a plan for everything else they need to do to coincide with getting the optimal outcomes.
What role do you see enabling technology playing in foot and ankle?
Mr. Rankin: There’s been such a shift for ankle surgery to move into the ASC. Foot and ankle was always at the forefront of the ASC. But coming out of COVID, what we found is that patients, especially for elective procedures, really do not want to go into that hospital setting anymore. They want that experience of going in and doing that surgery in a place designed for it.
But surgery centers are not hospitals. The average surgery center has 20 employees versus hospitals that have thousands. Everything needs to be more efficient. Total ankle is an emerging way to get your ankle arthritis done. Still, 80% of all ankle arthritis is addressed through fusion. Only 20% is done through total ankle, so this is still on the forefront of just exploding.
Total ankle is an emerging technology itself, and then you have the fact that we need to move to a center of care that demands the most optimal efficiency. That’s where enabling tech shines, and that’s why it’s a huge focus for us.
We envision a place where a patient can walk through the door, get their weight-bearing CT done and that flows straight through into Prophecy so surgeons can do their pre-operative plan. We’re expanding into an interoperative solution in the future to make everything as fast as possible.
How do you see total ankle adoption ramping in the ASC setting?
Mr. Rankin: Because of the low volume of total ankles that are done, I think ASCs will work through the kinks with the larger volume procedures. Shoulders will follow. A lot of those procedures are done by sports medicine surgeons who are already in the ASC as a primary place of location. Total ankle will migrate through, but I think the adoption into the ASC will be a little slower. But we can’t rest on our laurels; we need to stay on the forefront of that and be ready for when the tidal wave does come.
The fast-growing foot and ankle market is increasingly competitive, but lacks well-defined standards of care and consensus on procedural techniques. Companies are trying to solve those problems as elective procedures shift toward care settings that demand maximal efficiency for time, space and cost.
Michael Rankin is a foot and ankle industry...
The fast-growing foot and ankle market is increasingly competitive, but lacks well-defined standards of care and consensus on procedural techniques. Companies are trying to solve those problems as elective procedures shift toward care settings that demand maximal efficiency for time, space and cost.
Michael Rankin is a foot and ankle industry veteran with nearly 15 years at Stryker, where he is Vice President of Marketing and Medical Education, Foot and Ankle.
“If you look at hips and knees, there’s two or three competitors,” said Mr. Rankin. “You look at shoulders; there are two or three competitors. We have 17 competitors that we think about on a regular basis. One of the things that I love about foot and ankle is how much activity is there.”
We spoke to Mr. Rankin following Stryker’s launch of Prophecy Footprint, an expansion of the company’s Prophecy Surgical Planning system. We touched on the roles of enabling technology in foot and ankle and the need to innovate as procedures move to outpatient settings.
Our conversation is excerpted below and edited for length and clarity.
What is unique about the Prophecy Surgical Planning System?
Mr. Rankin: Currently, 90% of all our total ankles are done using Prophecy instrumentation. What’s unique about Prophecy is it is used across our entire spectrum of total ankles. Our system is really sophisticated. We can use patient-specific instrumentation and patient-specific planning for all our systems, regardless of whether it’s primary, flat-top, stemmed or implant revision. We’re good to go.
How does the Prophecy Footprint addition help surgeons?
Mr. Rankin: Remember, there are a million knees done every year. There are about 500,000 hips and 200,000 shoulders. There are 15,000 ankles done. So, the average surgeon does six procedures a year, and the ankle is a very complex joint. There are a lot of adjacent procedures that need to be done to coincide with this.
We are so excited about Prophecy Footprint because now, using our pre-planning software allows surgeons to think about all adjacent procedures before they get into the surgical case. So they have not just a plan for their ankle, but they have a plan for everything else they need to do to coincide with getting the optimal outcomes.
What role do you see enabling technology playing in foot and ankle?
Mr. Rankin: There’s been such a shift for ankle surgery to move into the ASC. Foot and ankle was always at the forefront of the ASC. But coming out of COVID, what we found is that patients, especially for elective procedures, really do not want to go into that hospital setting anymore. They want that experience of going in and doing that surgery in a place designed for it.
But surgery centers are not hospitals. The average surgery center has 20 employees versus hospitals that have thousands. Everything needs to be more efficient. Total ankle is an emerging way to get your ankle arthritis done. Still, 80% of all ankle arthritis is addressed through fusion. Only 20% is done through total ankle, so this is still on the forefront of just exploding.
Total ankle is an emerging technology itself, and then you have the fact that we need to move to a center of care that demands the most optimal efficiency. That’s where enabling tech shines, and that’s why it’s a huge focus for us.
We envision a place where a patient can walk through the door, get their weight-bearing CT done and that flows straight through into Prophecy so surgeons can do their pre-operative plan. We’re expanding into an interoperative solution in the future to make everything as fast as possible.
How do you see total ankle adoption ramping in the ASC setting?
Mr. Rankin: Because of the low volume of total ankles that are done, I think ASCs will work through the kinks with the larger volume procedures. Shoulders will follow. A lot of those procedures are done by sports medicine surgeons who are already in the ASC as a primary place of location. Total ankle will migrate through, but I think the adoption into the ASC will be a little slower. But we can’t rest on our laurels; we need to stay on the forefront of that and be ready for when the tidal wave does come.
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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.
