Is Mako the real deal?

lost "another"...how many total have been lost so far and are they all for the same reasons?

 

Interesting. Did the surgeon leave Stryker?

 

I know some of your reps and they are not very good. Crass is a good word. A lot of beer drinking and drug use on their spare time too.

 

Ignoring the past way Stryker operated their dog and pony show before and how some of their lingering archaic frat style reps behave outside of work: Mako has made a huge strides in a small amount of time. It has shifted the way patients are being treated while significantly decreasing revision rates in a niche market for partial knees. Now that they have FDA clearance to expand into the total knee market we can expect this shift to continue in a very positive way. Bundled payments coming next year shouldn't scare hospital administrators away from adopting the technology but intrigue them because an added capital cost up front to make low volume surgeons and those that are less gifted with their hands are going to become less of a liability to their patients and the hospitals where they operate.

As for their hip program, I will agree with the consensus that the value statement is much less prominent. Knee replacement is far from perfect however, and the "forgotten joint replacement" is much less common in patients. Those of us in the medical world that care for patients every day have seen, and will continue to see, great strides in our patients' satisfaction and clinical outcomes for many years to come.

However, Anonymous, I have very much enjoyed your vigor on this thread and I hope when you receive a joint replacement later in your life you are less upset when you see that big blue (or whatever color and version it is by then) robot in the corner and feel comforted that you will go home that day with perfect post-op radiographs to show your peers. I look forward to your response.

 

I am not sure who you are referring to as anonomous, because you are hiding as well. I love how you refer to our mako users as less then gifted with their hands. You make a truly sincere reference for competition...... If you use mako, we at Stryker, and the facility you work at consider you a hack and a liability. You are either the same marketing idiot who can't answer a question that the answer is not printed on a card for or you are a rep who works at one of the few mako accounts that still use it often and make some money from it.

 

I was not referring to Mako users as being less gifted at all! I am in defense of the growing robotic programs across the country especially under Stryker (especially their bank account). Stryker has offered Mako the ability to grow beyond their means when they were on their own. Referencing me as a hack and liability is a little harsh. I see the future of orthopedics in the existing robotic program. Our hospitals have greatly benefited from the first day the robot landed at each site. We make more money and are pulling more patients in from the surrounding areas than ever before with significantly more consistent outcomes that no one (including Blue Belt's Navio) can contend with. Knock that hostility down a notch - I'm on your side. The non-believers will soon see the light and conform to what is becoming the new standard of care.

 

Jumping in, Sounds like your on defensive and twisting your own words. You called surgeons with less then gifted hands liabilities. Less then gifted does not mean hack? Read the post again. You make everyone bashing mako seem more legit and you more like m a desperate marketing team member trying to salvage a job.

 

This ^^^^

 

I'm trying to say that not every joint surgeon in the world is going to produce consistently excellent results which is a problem that Mako can fix. I'm not calling them hacks but I am saying that they aren't the only ones that will benefit from using the RIO. Look at Tom Coon in California or Doug Padgett at HSS in New York - I'm pretty sure they don't need Mako at this point to perform excellent surgery. They use it because it basically guarantees the best results every patient hopes to get from the surgeon they trusted to their treatment.

 

Paid to use you forgot to mention...
Thomas Coon MD -
https://projects.propublica.org/docdollars/doctors/pid/133445/

Douglas E. Padgett, MD -
MAKO Surgical Corporation: Consultant, Royalties; Stryker: Consultant

 

I don't understand why recon guys aren't on board with the robot. Yes, perhaps in some far away universe many many many years from now it will deminish our role and be a risk for us....but in the mean time, if you get people to use this thing, you are closing the door on competition and making a ton of money....where is this resistance coming from?

 

Million dollar expense (bad thing) = more volume (good thing) = new pricing contract (bad thing) = more work for same or less amount of pay (bad thing)
Give us 2 points back on recon commission and we would definetly be onboard. There is absolutely no motivation, actually we all see it as an overall reduction in commission to even look into moving a mako unit into our territories. Nobody cares except people paid to act like they care.

 

This one line sums it up for me as well.

 

Well, if were are being honest with ourselves....we actually ARE paid to sell push this technology. It's the very definition of being a sales person for a company...

If Zimmer or Depuy had this Robot to sell, everyone would be on this board crying about how if WE had a robot THEN maybe WE could compete. They would be kicking our A**es. This is a game changer and nobody seems to be interested. Bunch of losers.

 

*We are - my bad

 

It's not a game changer if everyone thinks it sucks.

 

Sell a robot that you make no money off of and Styker lowers your commission to 6 percent. Sounds like a raw deal.

 

Is that why the head Triathlon engineer left?

 

If this was a "game changer", you wouldn't be the only person on CP defending mako and telling us what to sell. The last mako training I went to was a joke. A big pep talk on how we can sell the world with mako. Literally left training knowing I now for sure want nothing to do with it. The mako team sounds like pull string talking robots with the same 3 lines.

 

Don't know, but a lot of Sales reps are leaving. Mako reps will be running the show in the future.