100 Free Robots

I keep hearing this from docs everywhere I go. 4 different ASCs have been promised one in my little territory alone. Is Zimmer really desperate enough to give away free capital equipment or is this just more of the “Step In Front Of The Shark” campaign to stem the tide of Persona users converting to MAKO Triathlon? Are reps still getting paid a grand to tell the company when a facility is set to park a SYK robot? Is there a hotline? When do these 100 free ZB robots land?

Inquiring minds and all....

 

Not only that, but we're going to offer any doc that does more than 50 joints a year a consultancy "contract" and tell them we'll put their name on the back of our brochures. Deal with it.

Surgeons care more about marketing anyway. Offer it for free and attach implant usership strings to their group. I hope we give every facility in the country a free Rosa. It's all about being able to tell a patient that you "perform robotic surgery" regardless.

This is how the big boys do business. Get used to it.

 

Big boys are 3 steps ahead. Good luck getting insurance reimbursement. Allready a problem you have and you have no clue. Like you said, all marketing anyways.

 

Haha please. Why would IR be an issue at all? Do you have any idea what you're talking about?

 

Rosa is xray based, thus solving the reimbursement issue. ZB is the “Big boys” Nice try though.

 

I know it's cheaper and ZB had to get around patent issues, so they didn't pursue CT....but how is an Xray based platform going to match 3D accuracy of CT modeling? This doesn't look like anything that can produce a free arm saw blade and would be closer to a next generation nav unit with cutting block placement. That's not robotics.....regardless of what you want to call it.

We have had zero reimbursement issues with MAKO scans in my territory.

 

You have had zero reimbursement issues with MAKO scans in your territory... yet. They’re coming.

 

Well, now I'm scared!

 

Explain how Mako is true robotics and not glorified navigation. Having been in hundreds of Nav cases over the years, I can’t really tell the difference. Arrays are fixed, data points taken, size recommended and placement suggested and tweaked by surgeon, then cuts are done, and confirmed via infrared camera. Sounds like Nav. Oh, wait, an arm is moved by the surgeon, but the computer doesn’t allow you color outside the lines. Domo ari gato.

 

If this is a serious question, you aren't doing your job as an orthopedic sales rep.

 

Touche’

Using that crap implant that comes with the Mako is akin to playing a Mexican Strat through a Bogner Shiva. It’s the IMPLANT that stays in their knee, not the PROCEDURE.....Patients deserve better, and should know better.

 

After seeing how basic “robotic” Surgury is for several companies now I would never have my knee done with any robot or CAS system. If my surgeon isn’t competent enough to have the skills needed to to a good total I don’t want a computer making decisions for him. Pure marketing scam for patients who do no research prior to Surgury.

 

Isn’t that what Mako stands for? “Marketing A Knee Operation?”

 

Actually the hospital that bought one in my territory calls it the million dollar Mistako.

 

You don't need a CT scan to get 3D bone geometry. Using 2 orthogonal xrays can get you '3D' geometry using different types of 2D-to-3D registration. Not sure if this is what Zimmer is attempting to do, but the technology does exist.

 

Read for yourself:
https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_docs/pdf17/K171269.pdf

 

You do realize that it's just the mako unis that are being implanted with the robot. The totals are using trident/accolade or triathlon.

There is no mako total knee or total hip implant system. Do you really know this little about your competitor?

 

Hahahah, dude like 10 seconds of googling before you post?

 

I never made that statement....I said the uni IMPLANT is not comparable to an Oxford/PPK/ZUK and has ZERO clinical history. Uni’s have historically been finicky about implant design and this one has little. This is a sizzle sale, not a steak, and I think the patient should know more about the steak being put in them.

 

Is that why the revision rate for Oxford is 3x MAKO at 2 years, according to the Aussie Registry?

Better re-think that sales pitch to your surgeon, kiddo.