Smith & Nephew Archives - Medical Design Sourcing

Stryker CEO Kevin Lobo offers supply chain update after ‘wild year’

Kevin Lobo is CEO and chair of Stryker. [Photo courtesy of Stryker]

The medtech industry as a whole suffered over the past year or so as supply chain issues — namely semiconductors — came to a head.

Midway through last year, Medtronic CEO Geoff Martha labeled it as a problem for everyone as medtech’s biggest names navigated serious shortages of chips and other key supplies.

An industry survey from Deloitte showed that some medtech manufacturers slowed down or halted manufacturing operations after depleting their semiconductor inventories. Nearly 80% of survey respondents reported extended lead times, with some stretching more than a year.

At AdvaMed’s The MedTech Conference on Monday in Anaheim, Stryker Chair and CEO Kevin Lobo explained the low point that his company and the industry hit last year.

“In this industry, we never had to worry about [chip supply] before,” Lobo…

MedAccred joins The Irradiation Panel

NEWS RELEASE: MedAccred Program Joins Influential Irradiation Industry Association

MedAccred Sterilization Staff Engineer and Auditor Kim Patton [Photo courtesy of MedAccred]

The MedAccred program has become a member of The Irradiation Panel, a renowned not-for-profit industry association representing global and diverse interests in radiation processing.

The panel is comprised of suppliers and users of irradiated products and irradiation services, regulatory bodies, and consultants. Membership currently consists of 46 companies and nine individual members, including Steris, Sterigenics, BD, Smith & Nephew, NPL, Nelson, IBA, Mevex, and Astra Zeneca.

Established in 1966 and based in the UK, it has members from across Europe and beyond, and provides a forum for discussing the advancement, development, promotion, regulation and practice of radiation processing using electron beam, gamma, and X-ray techno…

11 of the biggest medtech earnings stories from Q4 2022

(From Ishant Mishra on Unsplash) Layoffs, growth and more — the biggest medtech companies in the world experienced a range of outcomes in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Over the past two months, many of the largest medtech companies across the globe reported their financial results for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2022 (with a handful of exceptions due to different operating calendars).

Some companies offered reasons to feel good about the direction of the medtech industry. Others went in the opposite direction, enforcing workforce reductions and cost-cutting efforts. MassDevice compiled a list of layoffs across the industry, which have now affected more than 19,000 workers.

As layoff news mounted across the industry over the past month, MassDevice‘s MedTech 100 Index declined 2.6%. That was slightly worse than the S&P 500, which was down 2%.

Here are some of the biggest stories from the most recent quarter, all coming from companies within the…

Smith+Nephew LEAF patient monitor wins innovative tech nod

The LEAF patient monitoring system. [Image courtesy of Smith+Nephew]

Smith+Nephew (NYSE:SNN) announced today that its LEAF patient monitoring system received an Innovative Technology designation from Vizient.

Vizient awards Innovative Technology designations to previously contracted products. The award signals to healthcare providers the impact of these innovations.

Get the full story at our sister site, MassDevice.

Supreme Court’s Arthrex decision creates more review for patent owners — and more questions

Angeline Premraj is an attorney at Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner [Photo courtesy of Finnegan]

A Patent and Trademark Office director confirmation may solve some problems, but it’s not yet clear how discretionary review will continue to evolve.

Angeline Premraj, Troy Viger and Kathleen Daley, Finnegan

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s inter partes review procedure is a popular avenue for challenging the validity of a patent outside of litigation. These procedures are overseen by a panel of three administrative patent judges (APJs) on the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) at the Patent Office. In United States v. Athrex, the Supreme Court ruled that the “unreviewable authority” of APJs to conduct adversarial proceedings for challenging the validity of a patent violated the Constitution’s Appointments Clause. The Supreme Court also ruled that the appropriate remedy was to giv…

Smith & Nephew is using vibrating bracelets to encourage social distancing

(Image courtesy of Tharsus)

Smith & Nephew (NYSE:SNN) having its employees wear devices made by Tharsus to help with social distancing as they return to the office.

A report in The Telegraph outlines how the London-based medtech company is providing vibrating bracelets from Blythe, England-based Tharsus to keep the six-foot (two-meter) distance widely recommended for preventing the spread of COVID-19.

Smith & Nephew held a three-week trial for Tharsus’ Bump system, which provides a “gentle, non-intimidating” vibration if two employees get too close, according to the report. The system was put to use in Smith & Nephew’s laboratories, warehouses and on its manufacturing floor.

One additional function for the Bump system includes collecting data to allow companies to monitor behavior and identify potential hotspots where social distancing may prove difficult. H…

Smith & Nephew is using vibrating bracelets to encourage social distancing

(Image courtesy of Tharsus)

Smith & Nephew (NYSE:SNN) having its employees wear devices made by Tharsus to help with social distancing as they return to the office.

A report in The Telegraph outlines how the London-based medtech company is providing vibrating bracelets from Blythe, England-based Tharsus to keep the six-foot (two-meter) distance widely recommended for preventing the spread of COVID-19.

Smith & Nephew held a three-week trial for Tharsus’ Bump system, which provides a “gentle, non-intimidating” vibration if two employees get too close, according to the report. The system was put to use in Smith & Nephew’s laboratories, warehouses and on its manufacturing floor.

One additional function for the Bump system includes collecting data to allow companies to monitor behavior and identify potential hotspots where social distancing may prove difficult. H…

The top 5 medtech CEO quotes about COVID-19

The latest earnings season not only provided insights from top medtech CEOs about how the COVID-19 pandemic is changing the industry, but also lessons learned going forward.

Here are five top quotes about lessons learned.

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DeviceTalks editorial director Tom Salemi contributed to this report.