Orthopedic surgeons have always been guided by the pursuit of excellence. Rigorous science, ingenuity, technology, and good old-fashioned elbow grease helped advance the field by leaps.
The result?
The success of total hip (THA) and knee (TKA) arthroplasty has improved outcomes and driven patient demand for elective orthopedic procedures through the roof. A significant reason for this success is that surgeons had the freedom to select techniques and technologies that worked best for their patients, their workflow, and their type of practice.
Now, as the healthcare paradigm shifts towards value-based care, how can surgeons retain their flexibility and innovative spirit to assess, analyze, and improve continuously?
At Enhatch, we believe that an Intelligent Surgery Ecosystem is the way.
We envision an open, digital ecosystem of curated innovations that work seamlessly together before, during, and after surgery.
Orthopedic surgeons and patients will have the freedom to choose the technology they need at every step, without worrying about integration. Empowering surgeons to be agile will help improve outcomes and patient satisfaction.
Medical device manufacturers have tremendous opportunities to enhance the entire patient and surgeon experience.
Partnering with Enhatch can help medical device companies achieve just that.
Let’s take a look at how this freedom of choice can help surgeons in the future.
Imagine comprehensive and accurate preoperative surgical plans created at the click of a button - even before a surgeon steps foot into their hospital in the morning.
Personalized 3D anatomic models are automatically designed using X-ray, CT, or MRI in minutes.
Surgical and prep op notes, medical history, and other essentials will also be easily available. Advanced algorithms can help surgeons plan alignment and select the right implant. Predictive analytics can be an informed ‘second pair of eyes’ to guide implant placement.
Patients often live with pain for years, even decades, before scheduling an elective orthopedic procedure. Once they’ve made their decision to get surgery and meet with the surgical team, they prefer the process to proceed as fast and smoothly as possible.
However, there is often a delay from when they get their medical scans to when the surgery is scheduled. Often, it is due to templating, sizing, and coordination with the medical device manufacturer to make sure the right implants and instruments are available on hand. If the implants are 3D printed, there may be weeks or even a month before the right ones are available for surgery.
Imagine a surgeon approving a 3D anatomic model and receiving the 3D printed implants and instruments within a few days! This is regardless of which implant manufacturer or implant is preferred and selected. Surgical teams can also get full visibility into the additive manufacturing process.
Keeping track of every single implant and instrument part can be challenging. Even manufacturers with large teams and big budgets struggle with last-mile visibility, set utilization, kit replacements, and more. Small to midsize companies face more hurdles while scaling their operations and acquiring more customers with limited resources.
Manufacturers who are part of an Intelligent Surgery Ecosystem can get end-to-end visibility. Advanced AI analytics can flag bottlenecks and errors before they happen.
Auto-generated user-friendly reports can streamline regulatory and compliance requirements.
Technological advances like robots, advanced navigation, intraoperative visualization devices, and AR can offer surgeons tremendous insights. However, right now, they can slow the entire OR process down compared to traditional instruments.
Introducing new innovations to your surgical flow requires intense efforts to integrate devices with each other. Surgical teams must often manually upload preoperative plans for each patient right before surgery. This is inefficient but unavoidable today.
An Intelligent Surgery Ecosystem offers a fully AI-integrated system that connects the best of technologies under one digital umbrella. Surgeons can select what they need and when they need it – without worrying about integration.
Postop follow-up data is incredibly valuable. Apart from postop X-rays, studying patient compliance with rehab protocols, the effects of surgery on vitals and comorbidities can help surgeons improve outcomes and patient satisfaction levels. This can be hard to do when surgeons and their teams are stretched for time and lack access to the right resources.
An Intelligent Surgery Ecosystem can close the feedback loop. Connecting patient postop X Rays, data from wearables, and follow-up visits can improve preop planning. Predictive analytics can help surgeons personalize their plans for each patient to optimize recovery and return to function.
Executing this vision of end-to-end seamless integration and powerful AI-powered analytics takes expertise and in-depth knowledge of the orthopedics world. That’s where the team at Enhatch comes in.
We understand that from our customer’s point of view, everything they touch must flow in an intuitive manner. Innovation cannot thrive in silos. Our intelligent surgery ecosystem is designed to help medical device companies improve the patient and surgeon experience.
We enable easy integration, connections, and collaboration within our ecosystem so that our customers can get exactly what they need, easily.
Our founding team has partnered with orthopedic surgeons for decades.
We’ve helped develop innovations to enhance surgical technique, medical device design, and OR efficiencies. We understand the challenges that patients, surgeons, and medical device companies continue to face.