Smith & Nephew’s Syncera Focuses on Organization of OR Instruments

Smith & Nephew’s Syncera business unit recently acquired two assets from S2 Interactive, a surgical software development company, to offer customers the ability to access and manage data from the instruments used during a procedure.

In the Syncera model, which focuses on hip and knee replacement, implants and instruments are purchased by the hospital rather than consigned, allowing implants to be offered at a significant discount to the average price in the U.S.

The model’s newly acquired applications, TrayTouch® and Virtual Backtable®, will allow central processing and OR administrators to identify the instruments that a surgeon uses during a procedure, to assemble and prepare the instrument trays and to train OR staff using visual layouts of each tray.

“The technology was well suited for Syncera based on the processes and change management model that we bring into the hospital,” says Stuart Morris-Hipkins, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Syncera. “What we want to do is not just bring in software that just works for Syncera products; it really was to support the change management process and train the surgical and OR staff and also central processing.”

TrayTouch enables central processing to ensure that all of the correct instruments are in the trays and in the correct order, based on surgeon preference, before the surgical trays enter the OR.

The software also documents inspection of the central processing department that cleans, re-assembles and sterilizes instrument sets before returning them to the OR.

“If you’re in central processing, you must make sure that every single procedure occurs and performs correctly. The effort lies in making sure that those instruments are where they should be, tracked in the right way. TrayTouch will be able to address that,” Morris-Hipkins says. “All of that drives efficiency and lowers cost; we’re able to offer attractive economics. Say you’re doing 700 total primary procedures today; the savings over three years are greater than $4 million net cash.”

The second acquired application, Virtual Backtable, is a visual planning and training system to prepare the OR staff, based on surgeon preference.

“The training platform sets up not only the room layout, but also surgical set up, the order of instruments and what that surgeon names and calls those instruments,” Morris-Hipkins says.

According to Morris-Hipkins, five to ten percent of the U.S. market is ready for a rep-less model like Syncera, based on a traditional approach and Syncera’s progress thus far.

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