ASC Insights: Making Advanced Monitoring More Accessible For Surgery Centers

[00:00:11] Hello everyone and welcome back to the Outcomes Rocket. I'm excited to welcome y'all back to the ASC Insights series where we're bringing leaders that are shaping the future of ambulatory surgery centers. Today's conversation is about partnerships that are making advanced monitoring technology more accessible, more affordable, and also more integrated for ASCs across the country, as well as the executives behind them.

[00:00:39] First, I want to introduce you to Blake Tatum. He's the Vice President of US Commercial for Medtronic Acute Care and Monitoring. And I also want to introduce you to Mike Lesick. He's the Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Patient Monitoring and Life Support for MindRay North America. Gentlemen, super excited that you joined me today. Thank you, Saul. Yes, Saul. You guys are making waves in the ASC space and I'm excited to cover some of our

[00:01:09] of what you guys are doing individually at your companies, but most importantly, what you're doing in the partnership. So to kick things off, I'd love to just start with what brought Medtronic and MindRay together on this expanded partnership? And what does the collaboration actually look like for an ASC in practice? We're very excited about the partnership with Blake and his team and everybody here at MindRay is super excited about what we're going to accomplish together. We have a longstanding collaboration,

[00:01:39] collaboration in the acute care hospital market. In both companies, when we get together, we always strategize how do we impact care in the future. And we really realized that there was a shift from hospital-based procedures moving out to the ambulatory surgery center space. And that was becoming increasingly common. And so really, this transition represents really a structural change in how healthcare is delivered.

[00:02:05] A lot of it's driven by like economic pressures, procedural innovations, which are super exciting. And then really patient preference, you know, patients want to go home sooner and recover at home. So we realized an opportunity to really partner together. We designed really a project to integrate Medtronic's advanced technologies into our bedside monitors to really expand access to high-level monitoring in the ASC space.

[00:02:35] So really excited. Well said, Michael. So Saul, for us, this partnership just makes it simpler and faster and more affordable for ASCs to deliver patient care with both MindRay and Medtronic technology. So at a high level, it's going to lower total cost of ownership for ASCs by adding Medtronic parameters upon shipment. It gives ASCs to the collaboration.

[00:03:02] So the collaboration allows us to get our most up-to-date technology on patients' first pass. Compliment to MindRay, by the way, Mike, I learned through the prep here that MindRay was the first OEM player to integrate our InVos technology, which I'll talk about a little bit later. For the customer, for us, it's going to be a little bit later. For us, it gives Medtronic access to MindRay's established ASC distribution network.

[00:03:27] They're already more than a 50% player in this space and allows us to provide timely, high-quality clinical service and training and to get our parameters on patient as quickly and easily as possible. Appreciate that, gentlemen. Appreciate that, gentlemen. Yeah, I mean, a match made in heaven. Sounds like both of you guys are bringing the best of what you offer to a market that needs it. You know, we've seen a lot of these procedures shift, and they continue to shift from hospitals to ASC space.

[00:03:58] You know, Blake, we did a session a year ago where you were kind of highlighting some of those procedures. Providers and patients want assurance that they're receiving that same standard of clinical care in the ASC. How does this partnership answer that question, and what does it signal to the ASC market? Yeah, that's a good question. So I don't want to steal Michael's thunder because he mentioned it earlier, but this just builds on our current collaboration in the hospital setting.

[00:04:24] And it extends it into that ASC space, which is rapidly growing, as we all know. So in order to ensure maximum patient safety and maximum workflow efficiency, essentially we can take all of our industry-leading technologies like NelCore SPO2, MicroStream Capnography, Biz Brain Monitoring, and Inverse Tissue Oximetry, integrate them directly into MindRay patient monitoring platforms as they're installed in the ASC.

[00:04:53] And it allows those ASCs to essentially open and operate as though they were in the hospital. So the higher complexity patients and procedures, they'll be able to watch them with the same level of care that they would in that high-acuity environment. When you're moving technologies from one care space to another, sometimes you're trying to fit them in, right, for the purpose of admission that you're trying to get across.

[00:05:21] We've actually built a platform strictly for this. And so it allows for scalability, it allows for portability of the Medtronic technologies from bedside to bedside. So it's just, it really makes everything more accessible. It's very thoughtful in design. And we're excited about it.

[00:05:42] Being able to take care of patients in the ASC just as you would in the acute setting, it's really key. And those technologies, because of the partnership, are able to transfer to the ASC or from the ASC to the health system. And that's exciting, you know, that continuity of care. Each of these technologies has a proven track record in hospitals. What's the individual value each one brings to the ASC setting?

[00:06:12] And how does that change when they're all on a single integrated platform? So, Saul, what we're working with MindRay on essentially gives, it'll give the clinicians in the ASC a complete picture of oxygenation, ventilation, sedation depth, and organ perfusion. It leads to early interventions. And through the partnership with Mindery, it allows us to integrate all that into a single system that Mindery has already designed for ASC workflows.

[00:06:38] So what those four are, are NELCOR, which is designed to perform accurately across basically any skin tone or level of acuity. The second one is MicroStream, real-time measurement of a patient's breathing effectiveness. So if you're in any type of respiratory compromise, even before our oxygen levels drop, MicroStream will tell you we've got a breathing problem with this patient, a GI procedure, a pain or spine procedure, urology, you name it. The fourth one is BIS.

[00:07:07] If you're a person with any type of age-related or other just acuity problem, it measures the level of consciousness during anesthesia or sedation. And the last one is INVOS. It monitors oxygen levels to the brain and vital organs. And because Mindray is fully integrated with all of our parameters, we can essentially send it in a pre-built package so that the surgeon or anesthesia doc or clinician can use it day one. That sounds seamless.

[00:07:32] Mike, and when your team sort of presents this to clients, like it's all part of the solution. As the physicians and clinicians are delivering care, having that centralized viewing integration really puts things in clinical context very simply. And it's completely accessible and, again, portable from bedside to bedside if we need it.

[00:07:54] And Mike, so you're bringing this up and, you know, you've got clinical teams, you've got the nurses, you've got anesthesiologists, CRNAs, the OR staff. Yeah. When they see this integrated setup for the first time, what do you typically hear from them? Yeah. Yeah. I'm so excited to share their feedback with you. It's basically overwhelming. You know, it's easy to learn, easy to use, easy to deploy, easy to acquire, increasing clinical context, you know, providing efficiency.

[00:08:24] You know, ultimately what we're doing is we're taking everything they would experience and deliver in a hospital, putting it in the outpatient setting and driving efficiency from start to finish. Yeah. If I could add to that, Saul. Yeah, please. So, I was literally on-site at a big ASC in the upper Midwest last week and we hear the same thing over and over. I'm not juggling five different boxes anymore. I need one system to manage.

[00:08:51] Even though this location was large, I think they had like 60 active rooms. They had four different vendors for patient monitoring in-house. It's easier to standardize across teams so you don't have nurses literally going from these four rooms with this brand to those five rooms with a separate brand. It just makes it easier for us to train.

[00:09:14] Obviously, Mike's team to train on the use of the system and our teams to lead the learning curve on integrated setup and then use of the actual clinical algorithms. It just simplifies and it's a big demand, I'd say, from the market.

[00:09:28] One other thing that we're seeing increasing is really the connectivity in the interoperability world where EMRs and electronic medical record systems are becoming more prevalent in the outpatient surgery centers, especially as IENs are growing in that space as well. They want a complete continuum of care visibility and record keeping system.

[00:09:53] So when everything's integrated, it's funneling through one communication stream back to the patient's record, you know, really providing a single source of truth, whether you're on site or you're a physician accessing it remotely. So that efficiency as well, both in cost and just delivering data where it needs to be, has been fantastic. What does an ASC actually gain? So we talked about the clinical side of things operationally and financially.

[00:10:23] There's big wins here, too. So by working with Medtronic and Mineray, what do vendors get? Give us give us a number or outcome that an administrator could take to their board. When they partner with Mineray and Medtronic, you're going to get top of the line parameters. No core, micro stream, biz, and evos. And Mike mentioned it earlier. But all of Mineray's latest tech comes in a really tight modular platform, right?

[00:10:49] So you could essentially acquire their tech with the modules I just mentioned and their plug and play. So directly from one trusted source, it's one integrated platform, top quality consumables and associated ongoing clinical education. So you're going to get our top of the line sensing tech to go with the modules within the Mindray platform. It allows for streamlined ordering and replenishment. So you're going to call Mike's team, call my team. We can cover literally anything. And then consistent pricing and contracts.

[00:11:19] When we've got an established relationship, you're going to get the best of both. So it's not a number, but it's as close as I can get, I think. You know, ultimately eliminates complexity. And each center is going to have their own economics that they're going to be able to experience, depending on how much they maximize the partnership. I think the more you maximize it, the more economies of scale you're going to get. But ultimately, purchasing becomes streamlined.

[00:11:46] Operational deployment, maintenance, training. Everything becomes standardized and potentially universal across a large surgery center division as well. And then delivery of care, most importantly. You know, when a caregiver goes into room one, room four, room six, they have the ability to be at the highest level possible within the partnership.

[00:12:11] So it'll be interesting as we go forward, because I think as we do this more and more, we have more partners out there. We might be able to put together some real economics, you know, from our mutual clients. A lot of value here, gents. And so none of this ever goes without any what ifs. You know, so what's a common concern or misconception that ASC leaders might bring to this conversation? And how do you address it?

[00:12:39] Surgery centers, you know, they keep evolving and they're becoming way more complex as, you know, orthopedic and bariatric procedures make their way into this space. The complexities can be overwhelming. Typically, their staffing needs are high, but they don't typically have the ability to bring on, you know, a hospital-sized staff. And so this just feels overwhelming for them.

[00:13:05] But, you know, ultimately, I think what this does is it really allows, you know, a purpose-built solution with integration to make things easier, easier to acquire. You know, having advanced technologies like MicroStream CO2, we make it easier for ASCs to deliver high level of care, especially in the PACU environment, you know, post-surgical. We need that higher parameter monitoring to provide the highest level of care.

[00:13:31] So it's surprising what they discover once we get these things in place. The misconception is it's too complex. It's too advanced for this type of footprint. We like to show them that it's not. A little bit different answer, but definitely not out of the ballpark. So the biggest misconception we often hear is they need an entirely new system to use our technology, which is not the case. Like Mike's mentioned, I've mentioned, these are modular designed to be plug and play.

[00:14:01] Another concern is flexibility. Do they have to commit to everything up front? And the answer is no. Modular platform, you can add parameters over time based on your needs. And the last is scalability and total cost of ownership. With a medtronic loaded, in-race, medtronic loaded mind rate in-series patient monitor, you can scale up or scale down. If they're just doing GI procedures and they just want, let's say, anesthesia monitoring and respiratory monitoring because you're using a lot of sedation, load biz and microstream only.

[00:14:31] And then as you scale up or scale down, you can add all four or not. So it's about not managing multiple systems. It's one platform. And then you add the technologies as needed. What our customers get to leverage is that we build in all the potential software requirements from day one. So they're standard with mind rate.

[00:14:55] As they purchase the medtronic technologies, potentially one by one or in phases, the software is already built in. So you're engaging that software through the modular technology of medtronic being portable. So every monitor recognizes, oh, we're doing this parameter now. We're doing that parameter. We're doing three or four combined. Some great examples, guys.

[00:15:20] And what should ASC leaders be planning for next here as sort of like the last question that we close with? What does the future look like for them? And what's the single most important thing you want them to take away from this partnership? From the medtronic perspective, this is not a one-time announcement. It's an ongoing innovation partnership. You know, like I mentioned earlier, MindRay was, I believe, the first OEM partner to integrate Invos.

[00:15:47] They're also working on integrating our latest 7100 Invos tech right now into their platforms. Viz, Nelcore, even MicroStream in the next year or two. There's really a constant evolution. Definitely exciting, certainly. What are the takeaways? I think, you know, certainly affordability, which is always a key concern for the outpatient setting. Integration is key.

[00:16:14] And integration has that misconception we talked about of one, complexity, and two, it's going to cost too much. And our mission is to really make advanced technologies more accessible. So we're going to do everything we can to make sure it's accessible, it's affordable, easy to use as well. This is just the beginning, to be honest.

[00:16:35] So it's, while we have a long partnership, many, many years of success behind us, you know, what's to come next is pretty exciting. Certainly can't share those things now, right, Blake? But we've got some pretty good things coming out. Just excited to partner with Blake and his team and Medtronic and see where we take this to improve patient care. That's outstanding.

[00:16:58] Mike, Blake, super excited to hear the progress that has been made and also the pipeline of opportunities ahead. For everybody tuning into this episode, know that this is just the beginning and your MindRay and Medtronic partners are accessible. If you go to the show notes, you'll see all the ways to get in touch with Blake's team, with Mike's team. If you're just listening to this and you want to jot it down, it's outcomesrocket.com forward slash ASC insights,

[00:17:28] where you'll see the entire series, including this episode with Mike and Blake. Mike, thank you so much for spending time with us today as has been a really valuable episode. Yeah, our pleasure, Saul. Thank you. Thank you, Saul. Thank you, Blake.