Since our previous conversation with the CEO of Penumbra, Adam Elsesser, the company has launched its newest thrombectomy device, Lightning Flash 2.0. The key improvement to their device used to remove blood clots is in the optimized software controlling the process. ‘The software ensures that aspiration activates only when the catheter is in contact with a clot and deactivates immediately when not, minimizing blood loss,’ Elsesser notes. Advancements of this kind, while seemingly incremental, can in fact save many lives. As Elsesser illustrates: ‘This has reduced procedure times drastically, particularly for pulmonary embolism cases. Procedures which took 45 minutes to over an hour can now be completed in as little as four to six minutes, revolutionizing both patient outcomes and the physician experience.’
That Penumbra’s new product is essentially a software update is no coincidence. The entire medical devices industry is making strides in digitization. iRhythm Technologies, known for its wearable Zio monitor, which records all heartbeats over a 14-day period, is actively using AI to enhance arrhythmia detection. ‘Today, around 5.5 million ambulatory cardiac monitoring tests are prescribed annually, mostly by cardiologists and electrophysiologists. However, nearly 25 million patients annually are potential candidates for arrhythmia detection in primary care,’ iRhythm’s CEO, Quentin Blackford shares. The company is now working proactively with primary care providers to ensure early detection of arrhythmias, which emerging data show are often associated with chronic conditions such as diabetes.
Moving away from the cardiovascular system into orthopedics, companies like Zimmer Biomet are reinventing themselves with new tech. ‘We collect data before, during, and after surgery and use it to drive shorter hospital stays, reduced surgery times, and better outcomes,’ shares the President & CEO of Zimmer Biomet, Ivan Tornos. Zimmer Biomet achieves this via their digital care platform, mymobility, that the company offers in partnership with Apple. Tornos also highlights Zimmer Biomet’s ‘smart implants’: ‘We are the only company making a “dumb” titanium knee smart by embedding sensors that capture patient gait and range-of-motion metrics post-surgery. The implant, called Persona IQ, together with our mymobility care management platform, allows surgeons to remotely monitor patient data based on recovery thresholds, providing an efficient way to analyze and review recovery trends.’