Devices like Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci system and its latest offering, da Vinci 5, and companies including Stryker, Medtronic and Johnson & Johnson are pivoting their strategies to join the race for leading robotic system production.
Intuitive Surgical saw 2.63 million surgical procedures performed in the U.S. last year using da Vinci systems, a 17% increase from 2023, according to a March press release from the American Hospital Association.
The AHA predicts the robotic surgery market will change in three major ways this year:
1. Growing competition. Intuitive first earned FDA clearance for its surgical robot 25 years ago. Now, the company is facing more competitors in the space than ever before. Companies are developing more robots and they are becoming more sophisticated. In the past year, a number of notable companies have earned FDA clearance for new robotic systems, including CMR Surgical, Distalmotion, Medical Microinstruments, Moon Surgical, Procept BioRobotics and Virtual Incision.
2. Additional surgical robotic use in the ASC. The presence of orthopedic robots in particular is growing rapidly in the ASC setting. Stryker and Zimmer Biomet are adding shoulder features to their surgical robots, while spine surgery also has the potential to see a robotics boom as well.
3. AI’s growing role in surgical robotics. Stryker’s Mako orthopedic and spine robots have begun incorporating AI technology Blueprint to help surgeons better understand shoulder deformities and their patients’ pathology. Intuitive Surgical also has an AI tool for the da Vinci 5 called Case Insights.