The minimally invasive surgery market, and associated Danish ...

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The minimally invasive surgery market,
and associated Danish opportunities
taken a step towards a potential revolutionizing future. It remains to be seen if it will be in the form of a
robotic console or whether some of these new features developed by Intuitive Surgical, will be further
enhanced and applied in the traditional laparoscopic devices, and to which extend Intuitive Surgical will
be able to financially benefit long-term from the innovations it has become a first mover within.
6) VIABLE MIS STRATEGIES:
It is in these difficult and stormy waters of expiring patents, questionable IP protection, inverted
demographics, globalization and challenges of documenting real MIS capabilities, we must define the
strategies of the new MIS initiatives Denmark is to produce and thereby decide which battle fields we
want our MIS companies to conquer. Understanding the main trends and triggers in the surgical device
market we can now start defining the strategies most likely to be successful over the next decades.
Lets begin with confirming that the MIS market looks attractive - from abdominal surgery we know that
this market is growing at 10-15% annually where as the non-MIS abdominal surgical market averages
3-5% annual growth 9 . It seems fair to assume a similar growth pattern in the other surgical specialties.
6.1 Leapfrog innovation:
At this level of innovation one needs not worry about the degree of surgical invasiveness – because
here we are talking about surgical innovation that makes the blind see, the deaf hear or the paraplegic
walk. This level of innovation is what everyone be it nurses, doctors, engineers or business people in the
surgical industry dares only dream about in a quiet and private moment, before we are brutally taken
back to reality by our own common sense. This is a shame - not only would a (partial) reconstruction of
a broken spinal cord or reconnection of nerves represent an unimaginable positive to patients affected
by paralyzation. It also makes sense that the described impairments could be improved through
electromechanical innovation, as they are all results of damages that lead to some sort of
“electromechanical circuit shutdown”. To cure or improve these impairments, it is probable that one will
have to look towards sophisticated electromechanical techniques and devices. Further down this line of
thinking we find the “joker” of stem cell research, where one day some human “spare parts” might be
available in an injectable substance that will regenerate damaged tissue and organs. It could prove
“less of a challenge” or “faster” to produce improved outcomes via electromechanical
techniques/devices/implants, than via stem cell research.
Needless, to say that if one can produce innovation that makes the blind see, the deaf hear or the
paraplegic walk - one has a pretty strong concept by all measures. At these only too rare levels of
innovation one would even expect to see a swift FDA approval process.
6.2 Sub-leapfrog (yet far above “face-lifting”) innovation:
This strategy involves significant improvements in terms of one or more of the MIS definitions above
(significantly reduced: pain, hospital stay, costs, and/or improved: patient outcomes, patient quality of
life) but does not necessarily change the intervention as such. A good example of this would be
prostatectomy by laparoscopic Da Vinci technique, here the surgical procedure is not really changed,
yet, the application of enhanced vision capabilities and thus more precise dissection capabilities lead to
better outcomes. The previously discussed DES (Drug Eluted Stent), would likewise be an example of
what we would label as “sub-leapfrog” innovation.
The main challenge with this kind of innovation, apart from developing the idea, is to actually finance
the clinical study that proves the concept: (a) safe and (b) significantly beneficial to patients.
9 aquilo analysis based on industry interviews