Stryker Corporation's Orthopaedics division announced today during the annual American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) convention that it launched its first iPad™ applications for surgeons, available through Apple's App Store(SM) to help them enhance the patient education process and provide easy access to information about products and surgical techniques.

"Transforming our customer interactions with advanced digital technology like the iPad™ will help us achieve our business objectives and sustainability goals," said Bob Campomenosi, Senior Director, Healthcare Innovations. "The iPad is a game changing technology that can improve the way we interact with our customers."



Several of Stryker's other business units and divisions are already using iPads to enhance customers' interactions with patients, including Craniomaxillofacial (CMF), Instruments, Endoscopy, Communications and Neurovascular. Stryker Orthopaedics also equipped its entire U.S. sales force with iPads, based on a successful 2010 pilot program. This shift to a digitally enabled sales strategy will also enable Stryker Orthopaedics to achieve significant savings annually by reducing the amount of paper Stryker Orthopaedics ships by hundreds of thousands of pounds.

"Historically, medical device makers' interactions with surgeons and hospitals were paper-based, which consumed a significant amount of time and resources," said Campomenosi. "With the amount of information at everyone's fingertips today, medical device maker-surgeon interaction can be instantaneous, and medical device makers should be able to provide surgeons with digital access to educational tools that can support their dialogue with self-educated patients."



To accomplish these goals, Stryker Orthopaedics created two applications to help support the evolving needs of health care practitioners and hospitals as well as those of its sales and field operations in the U.S. The first iPad applications are currently available through Apple's App Store(SM) and include:


Stryker Flipchart is a patient education tool designed to help orthopaedic specialists explain a hip, knee or shoulder replacement procedure to patients who are either scheduled for surgery or contemplating total joint replacement. It contains overviews of a normal joint, arthritic joint and replaced joint, using graphics and x-rays. Surgeons are also able to customize and annotate the images to support patient discussion.  


OpTech Live is a guide to Stryker Orthopaedics' surgical protocols with a friendly touch screen interface. The app includes information about Stryker products ranging from extremities to hip, knee, sports medicine and trauma.

"Armed with iPads, our sales team will have all the techniques and product information that they need at their fingertips," added Campomenosi. "While this is only the beginning of our shift to a digitally enabled sales strategy, these applications can help our surgeon customers to streamline both their and their patients' education."


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