Technological advancements are largely responsible for the movement of higher acuity cases into the outpatient setting. William Wilder, director of DePuy Synthes Advantage Field Solutions, discusses instrumentation for outpatient surgery and how DePuy designed the Select instruments with this setting in mind.
Question: What are some of the most exciting technologies you have seen that are allowing for more outpatient surgery?
William Wilder: Increasingly, we are seeing orthopedic procedures, which were traditionally hospital-based, move to outpatient settings. Pain management protocols and time-release pain medication have been most influential in this shift, which allows patients to go home the day of surgery to recover and manage their pain in a comfortable setting.
Q: How are an ASC's instrumentation needs different from the needs of other healthcare organizations?
WW: A need for efficiency is one of the factors that set ASCs apart from other healthcare centers since space and capacity are limited. Hospitals too are calling for smaller, cost-effective sets.
A couple of examples from DePuy Synthes to meet these needs are TRUMATCH Patient Specific Instruments. These are patient-specific surgical instruments that assist in the positioning of joint replacement components intraoperatively and in guiding the marking of bone before cutting. The sets are characterized by fewer instrument trays that eliminate up to nine surgical steps compared to traditional knee replacement.
For hip replacement, we offer Anterior Approach, a less invasive surgical technique that may allow patients to ambulate sooner. The Anterior Approach is a tissue-sparing procedure that exposes the hip with one small incision on the front of the joint with the potential to reduce muscle and tissue trauma and streamline recovery.
Q: When developing the Select instrumentation, how did you ensure that they would specifically suit the ASC setting?
WW: As with any product for a specific market, we seek customer input to help understand what features are most important for ease of use and efficiency. Specific to this instrument set, we focused on the layout of the set to help guide OR techs.
Q: Do you think more device companies are looking to develop products specific to the ASC setting? If not, do you think they should be?
WW: Most, if not all, products and instrumentation which are created for use in hospital settings may be used in an ASC setting, but given the trend to move more procedures to the ASC, companies want to ensure that their products deliver value and address the needs of the ASC. For example, DePuy Synthes has enabling technologies like digital templating, optimized instrument trays and a new program called Device Direct to meet these needs.
Device Direct is one example of a streamlined delivery model designed to provide high quality and cost-effective sterile packaged implants for anterior cervical fusion procedures and also designed to add value by helping to streamline ordering and pre- and postoperative preparation processes.
Q: How has the company grown in the last few years?
WW: Today, we have the largest and most diverse portfolio of solutions for orthopedics and neurosurgery, thanks in large part to the careful and successful integration of DePuy and Synthes into DePuy Synthes Companies. Detailed financial information may be found on the company's website.
Q: What are the company's plans for the future, both short-term and long-term?
WW: We are very excited about the future. With integration largely behind us, we are able to stay ahead of a marketplace that continues to witness consolidation. We are focused on delivering existing and new solutions to a growing patient population that is living longer and staying more active — but still with significant unmet needs.
We continue to work on streamlining our products and their delivery to meet the needs of ASCs, and respond to the Triple Aim to increase patient satisfaction, improve clinical outcomes and reduce costs.