In March 2024, the annual meeting of neurosurgery of the Chinese Medical Association and the national "two sessions" came to an end. The annual meeting of top academics is an important opportunity to gain insight into clinical needs and stimulate innovative practices, and the national "two sessions" are an important window for the world to observe and understand China. At present, accelerating the formation of "new quality productivity" based on innovation marks that China's medical and health industry has entered a new stage of high-quality development.
A few days ago, Lin Mao, senior business director of Medtronic's intelligent equipment and neurosurgery division, said in an interview with People's Daily Online: "The national 'two sessions' have released a positive signal that China will further attract foreign investment, which makes Medtronic deeply excited. In our view, China's healthcare market is currently showing an overall positive trend, and its main goal is to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare and promote the standardization of the industry to achieve long-term, benign and high-quality development. ”
Mao Lin, Senior Business Director of Medtronic's Intelligent Devices and Neurosurgery Division
In the past few years, new policies such as the reform of the registration system, the acceleration of the approval of innovative medical device products, the special medical zone, and the centralized procurement of high-value consumables have been introduced one after another, which fundamentally reflects the country's strong determination to promote the standardized development of the industry. The "Action Plan for Promoting the Trade-in of Large-scale Medical Equipment and Consumer Goods" released on March 1 this year clearly proposes to promote the iterative upgrading of equipment and information facilities of high-quality medical and health institutions, especially to accelerate the upgrading and transformation of medical equipment such as surgical robots, and by 2027, the scale of equipment investment, including education and medical fields, will increase by more than 25% compared with 2023. "The country's direction and goals for the development of the medical industry are becoming clearer, and the frequent new policies in recent years have also made us full of confidence in the development of therapeutic devices. Lin Mao said.
At present, the high-quality development requirements of the industry with the background of accelerating "big innovation, digitalization, and intelligence" are promoting the accelerated transformation of China's medical device industry. From a thoracic surgeon in a tertiary hospital in Beijing to working in Philips, GE and other medical device manufacturers, now as a manager of Medtronic, Lin Mao, who has been in the industry for more than 20 years, has a unique view of the Chinese market. ”
Therefore, in the wave of change, the Medtronic smart equipment and Shenwai business in charge of Lin Mao bucked the trend, crossed the cycle, and still maintained a performance growth of about 30% in the past three years. From 2021 to 2022, he accelerated the introduction of two smart devices, the Mazor X™ spine surgery robot and the Stealth Autoguide™ neurosurgery robot, and gradually promoted the standardization of robot-assisted surgery diagnosis and treatment in the Chinese market through professional education and marketing. In 2023, under his leadership, Medtronic Shensheng Consumables won the bid for the centralized procurement of neurosurgery in the 22 provinces alliance of Henan, so that more Chinese patients can be served with high-quality products. At the same time, through the integration of resources, Lin Mao has successively promoted the strategic cooperation between Medtronic and industry partners such as Shuimu Tianpeng Medical and Yum Medical, actively expanding Medtronic's local "circle of friends" and stimulating the innovation vitality of the industry ecology.
In the neurosurgery market, he also has a clear strategy to respond to clinical needs - that is, to provide diversified and multi-level products and services, which not only meet the intelligent and precise needs of top medical institutions, but also combine the characteristics of the grassroots market to provide products with strong indications and high accessibility.
Based on the current situation of Chinese's large population base and aging population, neurosurgery-related diseases such as cerebral hemorrhage, brain tumor, and hydrocephalus will be extremely critical once they occur, which will cause a large medical burden to the patient's family and even the whole society. "In the mainland, the really huge clinical needs are actually at the grassroots level, and neurosurgery, as a field with relatively high requirements for treatment technology, still has great room for popularization at the grassroots level. Lin Mao said.
To this end, he led the team to promote new treatment technologies and auxiliary therapeutic devices for high-incidence diseases such as traumatic intracerebral hemorrhage, hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage, and idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH). On the one hand, it is necessary to improve the clinical application of electromagnetic navigation in the treatment of hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage at the grassroots level, actively promote cooperation with primary medical institutions, carry out training and education such as intracerebral hemorrhage study classes, and improve the level of primary medical care and the standardized diagnosis and treatment of intelligent equipment. On the other hand, for the grassroots market, we will vigorously promote the localization of R&D and implementation of skull repair products and neurosiologic intelligent equipment to improve the accessibility of grassroots hospitals.
In view of the high, precise and cutting-edge characteristics of neurosurgery, in Lin Mao's view, intelligent equipment such as surgical robots and navigation will help clinicians achieve higher accuracy, minimally invasive and intelligent, "Helping the application and promotion of robot-assisted surgery and the standardized diagnosis and treatment of neurosurgery in clinical practice are also our determination and contribution to the intelligent development of the neurosurgery industry." Lin Mao added.
While focusing on innovation and adapting to the digital transformation of healthcare, Medtronic combines emerging new ideas, new technologies, and new therapies to bring an innovative solution to the industry - AiBLE™ digital intelligence ecosystem. "Through big data links and AI empowerment, the AiBLE™ digital intelligence ecosystem has in-depth cooperation with clinical experts and industry partners to build a platform for industry-university-research-medical cooperation, provide a one-stop auxiliary decision-making data system for neurosurgery, seek improvements and progress in data processing, information facilities, new material science, innovative therapies, etc., and comprehensively explore the prospects of digital intelligence application in China. Lin Mao introduced.
As a multi-dimensional ecosystem covering products, services, industry, academia, research and medicine, and industries, the AiBLE™ digital intelligence ecosystem plays a more important role in Medtronic's blueprint of taking root in China and running through industry, academia, research and medicine. Previously, Medtronic Kanghui signed a strategic investment cooperation agreement with Changzhou National High-tech Industrial Development Zone to jointly build "Medtronic Kanghui Changzhou Science and Technology Park". Relying on this and focusing on the development of the local neuroscience field, Medtronic has reached a strategic cooperation with Huashan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University to jointly build a "neuroscience industry-medicine integration innovation platform", forming a "dumbbell" dual-center layout composed of "clinical transformation center" and "technology transformation center". At the same time, the Neurosurgery Medical Science and Technology Innovation Achievement Challenge will be held to accelerate the industrialization of high-quality projects. "The essence of Medtronic's series of initiatives is to further promote local innovation in the field of neurosurgery in China. Lin Mao said.
Mao Lin, Senior Business Director of Medtronic's Intelligent Devices and Neurosurgery Division
At a time when new technologies and new materials are constantly emerging, in Lin Mao's view, Medtronic, as an industry leader, has many core competitiveness, "First, whether it is neurosurgical robots, or navigation, power, cerebrospinal fluid management consumables and other products in the intelligent integrated solution, Medtronic has always maintained the leading position in technology and products; second, we actively build 'equipment + consumables +Thirdly, on top of products, we focus more on the overall situation, focusing on the development of industry, treatment technology and the creation of industry ecology. ”
Today, China's economy has shown strong resilience and potential, and the continuously optimized business environment and broad market have provided a solid market support for multinational enterprises to develop in China. "Based on the new starting point, we will continue to integrate domestic and foreign innovation resources, promote the standardization of diagnosis and treatment of smart devices such as navigation, actively respond to the call of policies, help the update and upgrading of therapeutic equipment, and deepen the localization layout. Lin Mao said, "Medtronic hopes to not only be an introducer of products, but also a promoter of local 'intelligent' manufacturing and a co-builder of innovation ecology." Give full play to the local 'intelligent' manufacturing ability, improve 'quality' with 'intelligence', develop new quality productivity according to local conditions, and strive to become an 'insider' in China's neurosurgery market. (Lee Chang-hong)
Invited interviewees
Mao Lin is Senior Business Director of Medtronic's Intelligent Devices & Neurosurgery Division
He has been working in the medical device field for more than 20 years and has accumulated rich experience and industry insights. In line with the trend of medical intelligence and digital transformation, he accelerated the introduction of Medtronic orthopedics, Shenwai two surgical robots and other intelligent equipment, and promoted industry-leading concepts and projects in the industry, such as AiBLE™ digital intelligence ecological concept, standardized training of surgical robots, and standardization of navigation diagnosis and treatment.