Johnson & Johnson plans to step up its focus on the ASC market as surgery centers become a larger part of the healthcare ecosystem, Ashley McEvoy, executive vice president and worldwide chair of medical devices, said April 19 during the company's first-quarter earnings call.
Ms. McEvoy said the company's ASC penetration is still relatively low at less than 20 percent, but it's quickly growing.
"In a COVID environment, we've seen the model evolve to create a safe, more patient-friendly experience that addresses a patient sentiment of not wanting to go to a hospital setting," she said on the call, as transcribed by The Motley Fool. "Certain procedures have gone there early, sooner than later. … We've done a lot of work recently to modify our business model to make it a capital-efficient flow, if you will, in inventory management, on the personalization of care using digital assets [to make the] pre-op and post-op experience less full of friction."
The company is particularly focused on bringing its orthopedics business into ASCs. During the first quarter, worldwide orthopedics grew 5.6 percent amid the recovery from COVID-19 and continued adoption in surgery centers. Ms. McEvoy said the company's strong performance in the hip and knee markets was partially due to expanding to new sites such as ASCs. Johnson & Johnson also launched enhancements to its Velys hip navigation and robotic-assisted solution, and the Attune knee system.
Johnson & Johnson is also taking its experience at U.S.-based ASCs to China in the tier 2 and tier 3 cities for care delivery.