For hospitals, orthopedic capabilities might seem like an arms race – they do not want to be left behind the curve when rivals are tooling up. Patients may have positive views of the technology, even if data on clinical benefits is not yet available in great volumes. So says Jefferies Healthcare equity analyst Raj Denhoy, who believes it is not a done deal for health care robotics just yet.        

Stryker launched the Mako robotic arm-assisted total knee arthroplasty system at last week's AAOS annual meeting, making the company the first to offer a surgical robotic technology that covers the total knee, partial knee and total hip replacements. Critics, however, say the clinical outcomes do not necessarily justify the costs. Meanwhile, Stryker's orthopedic rivals, Zimmer Biomet and Smith & Nephew, also sought to highlight their own robotic offerings.

2016 was a year of surprise and change in political circles, but that's nothing new for the medtech industry, which over a number of years has become accustomed to health care systems demanding different and ever-higher levels of service. Smart medtechs have been ahead of the curve, but the whole industry now factors in clients' wider needs in a holistic approach to patient care. Many companies' current M&A policies are already reflecting the changes to come.

Q3 medtech financing doubled in dollar volume to $3 billion, with debt offerings again representing the majority of the aggregate; acquisitions totaled $5.3 billion, mainly due to Johnson & Johnson’s $4.3 billion buy of Abbott Medical Optics. Diagnostics financings, which brought in $85 million, continued to decline, but at $5 billion, acquisitions showed a slight increase over the previous quarter, with Danaher’s takeover of Cepheid accounting for most of the M&A volume.