Robotic surgery outlook boosted by hospital spending pickup in Q1

Hospital spending on capital equipment is on an upswing, signaling a stronger outlook for surgical procedures guided by robotic systems in the year ahead, medtech executives said on their first-quarter earnings calls.

The activity mirrors a boom in the broader economy to start 2021 that points to a recovery from the pandemic-driven recession, but the strength of demand from the hard-hit hospital sector surpassed expectations.

“As procedures are coming back, we’re seeing through our order book that hospitals are in actually very good financial position. And better than, frankly, I would have expected when the pandemic first hit,” said Stryker CEO Kevin Lobo.

Hospital finances are significantly healthier than they were following past economic downturns, he said. That solid footing bodes well for sales of Stryker’s Mako robotic platform for knee and hip surgery as procedure volumes return to more normal levels. The CEO cited the order book for capital equipment as a key factor in Stryker’s forecast for company-wide organic sales to accelerate 12% to 14% this year over 2020.

Mako followed a strong fourth quarter with a “banner” first-quarter performance, fueled by an upturn in international installations, according to the CEO. System placements, Lobo said, are an early indicator of future implant growth.

Similarly, Intuitive Surgical executives said robust capital placements in the first quarter, coupled with a rebound in the use of its installed systems, indicates a need by customers to return to surgery and shows that hospitals are preparing for a post-pandemic environment.

“On the capital side, new system placements continue to exceed our expectations,” said CEO Gary Guthart. “We know that new system placements are closely tied to anticipated procedure volumes and system utilization in mature markets.”

Intuitive shipped 298 da Vinci robots in the first quarter, up 26% from a year ago, boosting its installed base to 6,142 systems as of March 31, up 8% from a year earlier. The company said it saw particularly strong placements of its robots in the U.S., China, France and the U.K. during the quarter.

The better-than-expected demand suggests “hospital capital budgets were less impacted by COVID than originally anticipated,” analysts at Stifel wrote in a note to clients. Intuitive’s first-quarter results topped expectations across all key metrics: revenue, earnings per share, procedure growth and system placements, according to the note.

Procedures performed with installed Intuitive systems climbed 16% in the quarter, recovering in February and March after a sluggish start in January. The rebound tracked with a slowing pace of new COVID-19 cases. First-quarter revenue jumped 18% from last year to $1.29 billion.