Shoulder Innovations today announced a strategic partnership with Interventional Systems on a shoulder-specific micro-robotic solution.
The companies plan to further enhance shoulder surgical precision and workflow efficiency. They hope to enable exciting, new clinical approaches in the total shoulder arthroplasty and reverse shoulder arthroplasty markets.
Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Shoulder Innovations develops orthopedic solutions for the shoulder surgical care market. Interventional Systems, meanwhile, develops miniature medical robotics solutions. Its flagship Micromate platform uses cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT), fluoro CT or a fluoroscope for percutaneous needle intervention.
Micromate in 2023 became the first needle-based intervention robot available in the U.S. with compatibility for both fluoroscopy and CT. The system first received clearance as a table-mounted medical robot for interventional procedures in June 2021. Interventional Systems also recently announced a partnership on surgical robotics with Siemens Healthineers.
In this partnership, the companies plan to broaden Shoulder Innovations’ surgical ecosystem with more enabling technology. Once developed, the new robotic solution will integrate with the company’s ProVoyance platform. The companies hope to improve surgical accuracy and workflow while meeting the needs of patients and surgeons.
Shoulder Innovations and Interventional Systems are particularly targeting the rising ambulatory surgery center (ASC) setting. They plan to design the robot for direct transport into the operating room as a portable unit, supporting mobility and easy implementation.
The companies expect to address many challenges associated with robotic surgery. Those include high implementation costs, difficult mobility, costly perioperative inefficiencies and steep learning curves.
Commentary from Shoulder Innovations and Interventional Systems leaders and analysts
Rob Ball, CEO of Shoulder Innovations, said:
“We are thrilled to see our innovations resonating with the market and driving rapid share gains. Our team has helped deliver some of the most transformative advances in shoulder arthroplasty and we are applying that experience and capital raised through our recent IPO to introduce a finely tuned enabling technology platform for shoulder surgical care. While this latest addition will improve shoulder surgery in its current form, we are excited about how we can further reshape the marketplace as the true capabilities of our broader technology are developed and deployed. These solutions stand to transform every operating room into a robotic environment, leveraging a platform from INS already proven in other markets to maximize our ability to execute efficiently.”
Pedro Costa, chief strategy officer of Interventional Systems, said:
“[Interventional Systems] has a strong track record of deploying our micro-robotic technology across multiple U.S. healthcare markets with large strategic partners. We identified the fast-growing shoulder arthroplasty market as our next step and Shoulder Innovations as the ideal partner. We are excited to work together to bring this technology to market and advance our shared goal of using micro-robotics to make procedures more efficient, precise, and cost-effective.”
BTIG analysts Ryan Zimmerman and Iseult McMahon said:
“We’re not entirely surprised by SI’s announcement as mgmt. has been alluding to an enabling technology announcement since IPO. While exact timelines were not given, we expect updates as development progresses and do not see any impact to current financial estimates at this time.”
