Johnson & Johnson may have left the gate than some digital surgery competitors but Ashley McEvoy, executive vice president, worldwide chairman, medical devices, says the company has the technology and the team to win the race.

In an interview with DeviceTalks Weekly Podcast, McEvoy said robotic and digital surgery systems currently on the market have only been adopted by a small percentage of providers, leaving the field open for new competitors like J&J.

“Surgery is a slow adoption business,” McEvoy said,

While offering “huge respect” for the first movers. McEvoy said J&J enjoys market leadership right now in surgery. Its size and reach will open doors for its three digital surgery systems – Velys, Monarch and Ottava.

“We’re going to have a differentiated value proposition doing so in a broad-based healthcare, J&J fashion, not just like a standalone med tech company,” she said.

McEvoy pointed to the team J&J as assembled including Dr. Fred Moll, co-founder of Intuitive Surgical and Auris, the company J&J acquired in 2019. McEvoy also identified Dr. Peter Schulam, a surgeon who is familiar in robotic surgery, as a key new hire. He’s chief medical officer of J&J’s device group.

“We see a world where it’s not just a pure robotic play,” McEvoy said. “There’s going to be a hybrid procedure, minimally invasive laparoscopic offering combined with robotic offerings. We’re very fortunate to have the combination of a Monarch platform which has several indications to come as well as Ottava.

“We actually see the two coming together to solve big things,” she said. “In addition to lung cancer that I’ve talked about with the Monarch but also kidney and bladder cancer. As you know these are really about intercepting the disease earlier to get much better outcomes for patients.”

McEvoy, EVP and chair of Medical Devices at Johnson & Johnson, delivered insights on several areas of interest including:

  • COVID-19’s impact on J&J in the past, and what changes may remain in the future;
  • How the company uses its innovation network to accelerate development;
  • Why she’s bullish on the future of eye care;
  • How the company will prepare for future challenges.

We also talk with Naomi Murray, director of Advanced Operations-Additive Technology at Stryker, about her almost predestined path to join the orthopedics leader. She’ll be leading the March 23 discussion on Additive Manufacturing at DeviceTalks Tuesday. Register at DeviceTalks.com.

Colleague Lisa Eitel, executive editor of Design World, crashes the 50th party to tell us about her upcoming Women in Engineering webcast. Register for that discussion here.

Finally, Chris Newmarker delivers his Newsmakers – a mix of good news and bad from the digital pages of MassDevice, Medical Design & Outsourcing, and other sites.

Companies highlighted include Frequency Therapeutics, Medtronic, Theranos, GE Healthcare, DJO and Stryker

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