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Sorry about delay, just got home...
I do not believe Mr. McNally intentionally misled investors in the November conference call. And I'm not sure about which topic you are referring to.
Is it financing you think he lied about? When a group of surgeons wants to hand over millions of dollars to help your development project, do you say no? Was it completely a done deal at that time, or did he need to take responsibility to keep funding rolling in just in case that didn't pan out? Judgment call there, I guess, but I wasn't offended.
Do you think he lied about the schedule? No competent management team is going to come out and say there is a delay until they have properly quantified the scope and impact of the cause for delay, and have ruled out the ability to address it in parallel with ongoing activities without actually slipping the schedule. By November, they may have taken some input from the trials and decided that some of the suggestions were worth pursuing, but may not have had all the related answers at that time. Do you consider it misleading if he knew something that he didn't tell you because he didn't have all the details worked out yet? I will contend that such misleading behavior is not in his nature; if it was, we still wouldn't know anything about a delay. He would still be withholding that information until actual milestone dates passed by. Instead, he has been as up front and forthcoming about these things as is prudent to be, and for his honesty and openness, he is taking a beating on this message board.
Shameful. And I don't mean him. And I don't mean anyone in particular, but there are a number of poster here who apparently miss the old management team, because at least the old team gave us legitimate points to complain about.
BelizeMe, I don't understand the purpose of your questions. There is a time and place for hypothetical questions, but I am confident that you don't believe any of us can answer those. If I had that level of prescience, I would already be extremely wealthy with my numerous lottery jackpot wins, and I would probably have already funded Titan through to the finish line just for fun.
I don't believe I have ever said "In Mac we trust" but I suppose I would be considered to be part of that group. I consider myself to have fairly strong insights into the technologies and the QA side, and only to a slightly lesser extent to the regulatory side. Adding in my wife's three decades of OR experience including extensive robotics, I'd say we have some very strong insights into the clinical aspects of this program as they pertain to Titan as an investment with a very strong future potential. Within these areas, I have not seen any actions by Titan which are not completely logical and expected.
As for the financial side, I have always asserted that is an area of weakness for me regarding this (or any!) investment. I have no basis from which to make any accurate assessments of their finance activities. These activities are often scrutinized as being quite negative with respect to us investors, especially by those who keep indicating how badly we are being screwed. I wish I had the background and knowledge to argue, but I admittedly do not, nor will I claim to. However, given the number of folks here who often bash the development path as being foolhardy, when I know from extensive experience that Titan is indeed doing the right things at the right times, I can't help but wonder if the criticisms of their financing are often as inaccurate as the criticisms of their technical development decisions.
Mr. McNally's leadership team has earned my respect and trust on the technological front. Adding his track record of success in this industry to that, I am more inclined to also trust their capability in the finance realm, despite the temporary frustrations it may bring.
For my most recent communication with Mr. McNally, he replied promptly with an indication that he would need to investigate answers to some of my questions before replying thoroughly. A day or two later, another reply came with the answers I sought.
I would suggest, as you noted, that all such communications remain polite and politically correct, and would also suggest we don't overdo the personal communications. He probably receives the same questions many times from many different people, and as we would like him to be able to stay focused on his management tasks, I personally do not want to distract him too much from his primary duties.
That being said, he did indicate (correctly, I'm sure) that they are cautious about getting into a technical dialog on iHub, given the audience likely includes competitors. A quote I'll share from his recent email reiterates my earlier posting about the normal medical device development process:
"The feasibility work remains vital in determining areas of improvement for advancing the design in key areas where we can take advantage of rapidly-evolving technologies."
He closed with this:
"I am confident in our development and clinical team's ability to deliver on a product that will satisfy multi-disciplinary surgeon needs, positioning us to capitalize on the tremendous opportunity that lies ahead."
If we share elements of these personal communications on the message board, there may be fewer reasons to distract them further... of course, while being respectful for anything they don't wish to share publicly.
I've been in the medical device/development industry for decades. There is a ton of irrational fear being expressed on this message board. I've seen it all before, and I remain confident the Titan team is doing what is best for the product and for their (and our) future.
Testing is to be done on "production equivalent" equipment. That equivalence can include some hardware changes as needed; any changes which could impact performance needs to be properly documented and typically some level of regression testing is required to demonstrate the changes were not detrimental. Even after approval, any ISO 13485 approved Quality Management System will require proper documentation of subsequent changes with verification/validation testing, including for changes in production procedures. Nobody will build the first ten systems the same way they will build the next 500 systems; these procedures need to change and those changes need to be documented. Parts can go obsolete during a production run; newer parts get designed in, documented, tested, and like any medical device manufacturer, they move on. New processors? Wise idea to do it now instead of being at a performance disadvantage upon introduction of the product to the market, then needing to design new circuitry in two years because their four year old processors from Team Hargrove are outdated and nearing obsolescence. New software? Completely normal. I am currently working on a large hematology analyzer; it was released to the market in 2016. We are doing a software upgrade. There are more software upgrades planned for the future beyond this one. New features, better performance... This is all completely normal in any medical device company. But everyone here seems to be freaking out over routine changes.
Someone tried a Race Car analogy? We are at the track and racing in the qualifying rounds, and we are evaluating a change to platinum tipped spark plugs. All the hardest work is done, but for the final tweaks we still need to do everything right, document everything, and optimize with modern, currently available components. Our test drivers are saying "Great car, a little tight coming out of the corners." It's NORMAL, folks... Some tweaks have to be made on race day.
If you are that paranoid, how do you ever manage to commute to work if everybody on the highway is out to get you? Their design processes are as normal in medical device development as your commute is every day getting to work. Once in a while there is an accident ahead on the highway and you get to work 15 minutes late, and the next day you are on time again. This is all just THAT LEVEL OF NORMAL.
If any of you really think they are trying to screw us, you should have left a long time ago.
They have already proven that they will make the improvements in as timely a fashion as possible and keep moving toward the finish line. Does anyone remember last year's fiasco when it was announced that they were moving the foot pedal assembly into a more user friendly position? It happened. The sky was falling, it was a huge disaster, share price fell... and what was the net result? They said they would do it, they did it, they moved on. And they still made their schedule milestones for last year, even beat some of them. This time, they have a couple system tweaks and they want to allow for sufficient time to implement them. They announced a slight schedule slip for them, so they obviously deem them important enough to put in the effort. It is still TBD if it will actually cause a schedule slip; they have verbally indicated the possibility so we don't get blindsided if it happens. So because they gave us fair notice, we seem to feel that we have been blindsided anyway. I'm still not worried. And I appreciate another buy opportunity.
https://www.massdevice.com/titan-medical-touts-hitting-milestones-2017-financial-results/
https://www.beckersspine.com/mis/item/39918-titan-medical-reports-2017-full-year-financial-results-5-things-to-know.html
Neither of these puts a real negative spin on the recent news. All the negativity seems to be... here on this message board!
Is the delay to be considered good news? Obviously not. Are the system improvements worth the wait? Most likely, but we'll never know for sure because we can't find the wormhole to travel to that alternate universe.
So ISRG sold 684 systems last year? That is selling into a market which they have already saturated, to customers who mostly hate them for their arrogance and heavy-handed policies, but as long as they are the only real game in town (Sorry Trixie, it's true) they can still wrench $2M a pop from 684 customers who need to be able to say "Robotic surgery HERE!" in their advertisements.
My question to the robotic surgeons on this board... looking for ballpark percentages here, but of all the cases done with da Vinci last year, how many of them could have been performed with SPORT if it was already released?
If we can perform 80% of the cases da Vinci is performing, with a system price of 60% of da Vinci and a per-case cost of about 50% of theirs, by a SPORT system which has addressed virtually ANY performance concern expressed by the leading robotic surgeons around the planet... Why such negativity here? Just curious... Impatience is the only underlying reason I can think of. We're impatient, sick of waiting for it... but face the truth - we are all still here because we know what the future of this device holds in store for surgeons, hospitals, patients, and investors. Otherwise you and I wouldn't still be here.
Cheer up! We aren't Trixie!
2M shares sold means 2M shares bought... People selling, people buying. My SEP money hasn't moved yet, but better bargain for me when it does!
Un-tried single port? Yeah, big shame they tried something new. Destined to fail for that reason alone.
Also, it was terrible that the US tried putting a man on the moon. Obvious failure because nobody had done it before.
And the Wright Brothers with that silly idea about a machine that could fly with people on board. Just ludicrous, a historic flop; a failure of epic proportions. And it's a shame it didn't work out, because I bet if it had worked, companies would have made billions of dollars flying people around the planet.
Message in reply to:
Sadly - TITAN-ic chose to go with untried Single-port ...
Flenderson,
Amadeus would have been better than Senhance 2.0 based on the real estate requirements for Senahnce and all the giant towers.
If they could also rent out space on those towers for cellular transceivers, they would be worth something! Amadeus might have too closely mimicked da Vinci and therefore could have been a terrible risk for patent infringement. SPORT for just one single indication would have possibly been okay if it was a significant enough indication, either hyst or prostate, just to get a foot in the door and start taking revenue, but it would probably have been a tough sell for such a limited system. With the current plan and design, they should have much stronger sales numbers up front, and based on early surgeon feedback, I would guess there will be a waiting list to buy them when they hit the market. A product like this will need a careful roll-out with pre-sale training and close monitoring at the first few customer sites, but a lot of the groundwork has been laid years ago by ISRG so it won't be entirely new, just a little different and a lot easier. ISRG customers will adapt easily, and new customers should probably not be served until after a number of "robotic savvy" customers help smooth out any bumps in the supply chain.
It will be worth the wait, regardless of how much it tests our collective patience in the meantime.
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Quick question, anyone out there wish we had gone to market with Amadeus, or single application SPORT? I want it out in the market as much as the next guy, but I sure as hell don't want to be Senhance 2.0...
Plexus was a known entity for Titan (in 2016? I think...) and did some earlier development work for them. If they were still on board, why would Titan now be silent about this previously known relationship? I would have thought it was Plexus all along, except that they went from being publicly known for working with Titan to "we can't disclose our development partners without mutual agreement and it might hinder our competitiveness" (not actual quote, just the general nature of what was said on the CC). I agree Plexus probably is more than capable, but there could be other determining factors - budget, schedule, some specific experience they sought... Just another case of where we can only trust that they are doing what is best for the company and the product's future.
Thanks Quid! Great minds think alike... and by coincidence, so do ours!
I think Dr. Barret's input was equally or more important than Dr. Estape's, which was quite nice. Prostates were ISRG's bread and butter in the beginning; it's what got them rolling in the early days and it's why I bought my ISRG stock in 2003. Dr. Barret does mention that he did so "with sufficient access and reach using the current instrument offering." The implication I draw from that is that the access and reach may be improving further in the design tweaks. I also likes Dr. Estape's mention of having sufficient force available to drive a needle through some of the tougher tissues. My wife (30 year OR nurse/20 year educator/15 year robotic preceptor) asserted that it is indeed a known difficulty with current ISRG offerings.
I think the affirmations of the technology far outweigh the schedule hiccup. I am disappointed that I can't continue to tout how the current management team continues to hit all their milestones; as a cheerleader they just stole one of my pom poms, but as a former Program Manager I can tell you that the type of slip they are talking about is completely normal in the real world, and actually, it is still commendable. Most development schedules slip much more drastically than Mr. McNally's, and he has been forthcoming about the reasons. Those reasons pertain to taking the designs he inherited from the old team and improving them to ensure he has a solid product which can offer the marketplace a real and lasting advantage. He has been in crash mode since he started (Crashing a project schedule means reducing the required time by identifying the critical path tasks, and adding resources as needed to accelerate those tasks while other parallel tasks continue) and this seems to have been effective for him so far.
For me, I'm looking at this as a possible buy opportunity. I was hoping for a three-for-a-buck deal when I get my SEP contribution in place in a couple weeks; maybe I'll do better than that now. I'm still long and strong on Titan.
I don't know the wording of law, but I think the PR which announced the CC makes the call public and publicly accessible, so I'm guessing no additional PR should be required. However, another PR to announce any really big news might go a long way to help bolster the PPS! My thoughts on the matter, of course...
Historic sell-off as people convert shares to cash. If Titan can show stability while the market crumbles, and present solid news tomorrow, they could benefit from all these people looking for a good place to put their new cash!
Zoe, nice find on defining the "sweet spot"; I appreciate the clarification.
Also, to the folks speculating on $15/share... That sure would be a "sweet spot" as well!
As for the tattoos, I wouldn't jump too soon. It may have been in the prospectus or maybe somewhere else, but there is a mention somewhere that the Titan name may be changed at some point in time if there is any sort of contention for marketing under that name.
One of the docs in the new videos spoke repeatedly about the "sweet spot" in his video. To me, that probably means he would have preferred a bit more reach on the arms. I think it was the Medrobotic system which received a comment about the arms being too short, and theirs were much shorter than ours. So if SPORT is limited to the "sweet spot" for activity, think of how much more restrictive the other system must be.
Like the new videos... I loved the "Right is right, left is left again" comment by Dr. Ruurda.
As for Karl Storz, it could certainly be just coincidence, but it just seemed like an odd coincidence that in the video, the printed name KARL STORZ was so prominently displayed... It could have been on the top, the bottom, on the left side, maybe written upside down as the camera sees it. But no... It was perfectly placed for prominent visibility by the camera. Certainly, could just be coincidence, but let's just say as far as placement around the stick (viewed as a cylinder), you could consider there to be four quadrants - top, bottom, left, and right. One out of four chance it would be in the right quadrant, facing the camera. And 50/50 chance it would be upright, so only a 1 in 8 chance that it was randomly positioned so perfectly for the camera. To me, that means there's an 87.5% likelihood that they are trying to tell us something, and a 12.5% chance it was random placement.
I know, sometimes I just read too much into things merely for the fun of doing a pointless analysis. But as long as I'm having fun...
Where did I leave my coffee???
https://listingcenter.nasdaq.com/Material_Search.aspx?cid=34&mcd=LQ
Can a seasoned issuer effect a reverse stock split to meet the minimum bid price requirement for initial listing?
A seasoned issuer may complete a reverse stock split to comply with Nasdaq's minimum price requirement for initial listing. Generally, when this happens, Nasdaq will require that the issuer continue to meet the price requirement for a minimum of five consecutive trading days after the split takes place. This means that on each of the five days the issuer must at some point during normal trading hours have a price which is at or above the applicable initial listing criteria.
Please note that Nasdaq may, in its discretion, also require an issuer to maintain the required minimum price for a period in excess of five consecutive business days, but generally no more than ten consecutive business days, before determining that the issuer has demonstrated compliance. In determining whether to require a longer waiting period, Nasdaq will consider the following four factors:
Margin of compliance (the amount by which the price is above the minimum standard);
Trading volume (a lack of trading volume may indicate a lack of bona fide market interest in the security at the posted bid price);
Where applicable, the market maker montage (the number of market makers quoting at or above the minimum required bid and the size of their quotes); and,
The trend of the stock price (is it up or down?).
So we potentially qualify on the $4 bid requirement with a minimum of about a 12:1 RS. That would leave us very little margin for a post-RS drop, if that is indeed a real thing for us.
I can't say I blame the Market Makers completely although I haven't always appreciated their influence on PPS in the past. And I certainly don't blame anyone currently at Titan for focusing on product development when that is their primary task at hand; adding in Marketing right now could prove to be more of a distraction and pose a possible legal threat if they accidentally overstate their position or say something that could be considered the marketing of a system not yet approved for sale. And if I have the opportunity to grab my last buy at three for a buck when I make my SEP IRA deposit in a couple weeks, not only will I not BLAME anyone, I will be eternally grateful!
Although I agree Mr. McNally probably should have made some substantial stock purchases, I also think he would be well within his rights to be a bit insulted that we should try to tell him how to spend his money. As investors, it certainly would be reassuring to see that "vote of confidence" from him, but if it doesn't happen it really shouldn't be any of our concern. A guy with that level of responsibility on his shoulders may (most likely, I would guess) be accompanied by other personal and financial responsibilities which are none of our business. Proper decorum and etiquette would suggest that we just might owe him an apology for merely suggesting it.
As always, just my two cents, and maybe not even worth that much.
If Mr. McNally opts for a raise on the 7th, it will merely shed some insight into his modus operandi with respect to funding. We can then consider it a lesson which can help us plan to optimize our portfolios in the future, when such announcements are made.
Based on prior assessments, there shouldn't be any need for a fundraising exercise this early, hence it would appear to be wiser to wait until price has a chance to rise organically, considering the milestone announcements we should expect over the next six months. Given Dr. Estape's involvement in the conference call, that should largely rule out any likelihood of bad news at this conference call.
Any way for us peons to submit questions? All it says is For more information, see the web site... but the only thing on the web site about this is the press release itself.
I was thinking of that initially when they said internship, but they are looking for a BS degree and two years experience... It seems rather odd to me that they call it an internship.
Welcome aboard, Never2Late!
I keep insisting that this message board has a far greater reach than just the regular posters here... I wish more would drop in and say "Hi" once in a while! And I'm glad you did.
More rational opinions and more insight makes us more valuable as an informal organization. Can we call ourselves maybe a Disorganized Organization?
They can... her name was Paige and her boss's name was Daddy.
New management team appears to feel that the timing of that previous marketing team was a bit premature, because she does not seem to still be with them.
The design freeze should certainly be a slam dunk. After reviewing the piece of the 510K application from Medrobotics, I have a greatly increase confidence in Titan's ability to get through FDA scrutiny without too much difficulty. Being in the med device industry, I do understand there is still a huge amount of work to do to prepare for it, but they seem to have a good grasp of what is needed.
As for eventual valuation, I'm not sure ISRG's multiple will be viable for Titan, and probably not even for ISRG in a few years... once we start a more heated competition for this market space. But I'll take whatever comes!
As for 10%, I still think it is an arbitrary number for estimation in this circumstance, but I also recognize the value of simplicity when it comes to just moving a decimal place. I have verbally advocated (among friends, just banter and just for fun) for a 10% flat tax in the US. If you earn a dollar, you owe 10 cents. If you earn ten million dollars, you owe a million. If your earnings are from an employer who withholds for you, you can be exempt from filing, and the burden on the IRS will be much simpler. No deductions, no exemptions, just 10% across the board starting at the first dollar and no cap. Would be very easy, very fair, and the government would need to figure out how to properly budget. My whole proposal is really just based on the simplicity of 10%, neglecting to figure out if it would generate enough revenue to run our country. But it sure would make my life a lot easier (and cheaper!).
I don't know why everyone seems so focused on this 10% figure when comparing to ISRG. Seems pretty arbitrary. There was a big push over the past couple years to bump the national minimum wage up to $15/hr. I said that is stupid, random, and arbitrary. It was just a convenient number someone pulled out of their 455 to get a bunch of whiners onto a bandwagon. If they said $14.93 instead, there may have been some actual data-driven reason that $14.93 is a fair and reasonable request (although the cost of living is so different in different areas that any uniform national minimum wage is already illogical). By selecting $15/hr, it tells me it is just a random attempt at a money grab.
The idea that Titan could or should be 10% of ISRG's market cap shares a convenient randomness with the Wageragers. Besides, it should be part of a natural progression as we go from about a quarter of 1% of their market cap to 1%, 5%, 10%, maybe eventually 14.93% of their market cap - the randomness of the number almost gives it credibility!
Here is one place I think the Medrobotics device will help SPORT:
https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_docs/pdf15/K150776.pdf
Go to the predicate device comparison starting on page 12 (labeled as page 9 of the application). Looking at the factors they have taken into consideration, and considering how SPORT will stack up when compared to other devices which are already out there, our 510K just might be a slam dunk when the time comes. And the Medrobotic Flex system now might be on our list of predicate devices as well, given the new approval for more indications.
PPS predictions for this stock are garbage... Not the stock or price, but the predictions themselves are garbage. This stock has proven over and over again that it will defy logic, jump for no apparent reason, and slide on good news. We've already seen it all. About the only thing I would dare to predict is that it will remain unpredictable.
However, that unpredictability could eventually work in our favor. When it starts to run and we expect a nice, gradual rise, it might just shoot up like a rocket instead. I'd be okay with that, but I'm not predicting it will happen.
I thought it particularly unusual for someone in his position (CEO, was it?) to make comments of that nature about another organization, especially when he appears to have little to no knowledge of Titan's current management team. Very unprofessional, but more notable that a CEO would be that crass about another company that appears to be unrelated, or at least not a competitor to his own company. Hopefully, as he searches for his next job, his interviewers will run into that post when they research him, and think twice about hiring such a hothead.
It has also occurred to me that it might be someone we are already familiar with, a poster from this message board with an extremely jaded history - or a Trixie fan, of course, is always possible.
I think I want the Pats to win the SB as much to rub things further in Goodell's face than anything. The Pats got nicked for doing the same things everyone else was doing, or would have been doing if they thought of it. A cell phone is personal property; Brady's suspension ultimately was for not turning over his old cell phone to Goodell. Probably some great private pictures of Giselle on there; that's why Goodell was so PO'd - he didn't get to see the pics!
Kamara had a great year and is already a force to be reckoned with. Chances are he'll get a ring or two, all in due time.
What scares me most is the idea of a Pats-49ers SB in the next couple years. Brady vs. his protege Garoppolo! I am among the many Pats fans who were disappointed that we let him go, but he deserves the opportunity that he now has. He was a viable "heir apparent" to the Brady Dynasty!
Go Titan! And Pats too, of course.
To further the irony, the Pats just beat the Titans...
And I understand how easy it is to hate a great team when it is not your own. Most of my life was lived during the Red Sox curse years, and the Yankees were easy to hate - although I had often said Jeter would have looked great in a Red Sox uniform!
Titan Medical management is a great team but they are just getting out of their rookie year, so they do have a way to go to rise above their underdog status!
At this time of year, I'll switch sports on you - no full court press in football!
As a New Englander, I am accustomed to the fourth quarter comeback that Tom Brady is quite famous for. But at this stage of the game, I have more confidence in Mr. McNally than Mr. Brady (I still think Brady is a great QB despite age, injury rumors, etc.; I just think Mr. McNally isn't as close to retirement).
Even Trixie is still in the game but they're in the fourth at the two minute warning, and down by two touchdowns. Titan might be down by a point or two in the fourth quarter, but for Titan it's early in the fourth, they have the ball on the opponent's 15 yard line and will easily kick a couple field goals before our touchdowns start piling up by next year.
I am only happy with our current price point because it possibly leaves me one last buy opportunity next month, if it doesn't take off by then. I am not concerned about it as a negative because once the bigger milestones are being hit and the bigger news items are coming out, these buy opportunities will dwindle in magnitude. Today's 50-bagger (if we hit $15) is only a 10-bagger by this summer or fall, and only a triple when we sell our first approved system. In this regard, we may owe Trixie a debt of gratitude for casting some doubt on a new entry into this market space because it might be "helping" to keep our price suppressed until it proves itself to be the real deal to paying customers.
Please ST, do not take a hiatus (not that I would expect you to).
Everyone, myself included, goes through cycles of varying levels of optimism and pessimism. The exchange with 33 appears to still be on a civil level, and the final outcome is that we have a quote upon which to base our assessment of Verb's business model, if we so choose. I have disagreed with others on this board before and except for a couple blatant obnoxious bashers, I look forward to meeting and partying with all in Vegas when the time comes.
Sharing differences of opinion allow all of us to refine our own opinions and outlooks, and usually lead to a reasonable consensus. We are all stronger for it.
I'll be on a Carnival cruise ship in March! I'll have to look for a robotic bartender, although the main lobby bar tends to have some very attractive personnel staffing those locales. And you'll never get a heavy pour out of a robot.
I spent nine years of my career working for Dean Kamen at DEKA Research & Development. They used technology originally designed for medical devices to dispense liquids in proper ratios for soda dispensers, now commonly used in Burger King restaurants. Not that anyone needs microliter accuracy for a soda.
As Scott Huennekens indicated, this vision extends out 10, 20, and 30 years. And part of it is to make robotic surgery ubiquitous enough that it becomes much more affordable, and can be deployed into remote areas that currently don't have access to surgery at all. I don't know if it would ever get to the point of the robot doing patient prep, initial incision, etc., but if you were in a remote area and in need of life-saving surgery, would you allow a robot with a solid track record to do it, or just wait to die in a few weeks? To the autopilot analogy, if you are stranded on a remote island with no long-term means of survival and your only hope was some autonomous aerial craft, do you take the chance flying or stay put for sure death? I think the long term vision is fairly comprehensive for the planet and all its residents, but I am also quite confident that it will be an extremely profitable model long before it achieves that level of global saturation.
And maybe the two can tie in together! Autonomous aircraft delivering surgical robots to remote areas for life-saving surgery!
My thought as well... an ERP system for all of healthcare, with robotic surgery as an anchor point or a hook. Scheduling, supplies, sterile processing, and direct communications with the robotic system, all tying in with other operational areas of a hospital or health care system, including finance, billing, payroll, and interfaces to insurers as well. And all reporting data back to Verb as well.
I also envision the strengthening of this robotic anchor point by building a database of surgical metrics derived from the robotic motions for each indication. With enough data, they can fairly accurately predict required movements of the end effectors for a given indication, based on patient metrics such as height, weight, age, health... Add in some image recognition software to validate the motions, and the system might initially be able to recommend the surgeon's next move or require independent verification if the surgeon appears to be doing something improper for the given procedure type. Eventually a determination could be made as to whether or not the software could perform the surgery better and more accurately than an average robotic surgeon. There is so much variability in human anatomy from person to person - whether genetic, prior surgeries, industrial accidents, tumor growth displacing organs, webs of adhesions from prior surgeries, etc. that the data collection requirements and image recognition databases would have to be huge. This would take TONS of data collection before getting to that point. Given the number of robotic cases conducted today with limited market saturation, I foresee this as the eventual future of robotic surgery, and I can only assume that is part of Verb's long term plan.
May seem a bit futuristic by today's standards, but mankind keeps proving that whatever it is, if we can dream it, we can eventually do it. It would take a Google to manage the required volumes of information, and a JnJ to have the resources and infrastructure to reach that many corners of the healthcare world. That's my guess at what Verb is aiming for, and possibly why they are trying to keep so much of it under wraps. Imagine the power of such an organization if they pull it off. I'm already imagining the investment potential!
Rev, I agree... Multi-port has been done to death, although ISRG's ongoing sales numbers indicate to me a couple things... There is still a TON of market space for new robotic systems, and Transenterix helped prove that it will be difficult to compete in the multi-port space (although their floor space requirements for all those separate towers certainly put them at a major disadvantage). Therefore, if the market is willing to keep buying 20 year old multi-port technology, they must be hungry for something new and different and better. Other than having developed some level of disdain for ISRG's tactics, there isn't any reason for a hospital to take on the risk of a newcomer for the same-old quad-hole solution they can get from a known entity with a reasonable track record (ISRG). SPORT is new and different and better. If JnJ is developing a multi-port robot, that is even better for us because it keeps us in the rarified space of new and better. As for name recognition of Google being a panacea for marketing, let me just say two words - Google Glass. Google can flop as hard as anyone (except maybe Trixie!). The Google name does not necessarily need to cause fear among potential competitors.
As for your "meat and potatoes" comment, I definitely agree that in this space, the mechanical capabilities are everything, and software just enables those capabilites - the software must be implemented well for safety reasons, and the User Interface is also a huge factor, but the real capabilities are borne of the mechanical design.
SPORT19 quoted the following:
"The team has already made meaningful progress on the robotics platform, which is being developed for application across a host of surgical specialties.” Having been in the medical device industry since 1982, I have seen more than one instance where a new platform was being developed to run on existing hardware. "Platform" can mean just software. I still thing Verb's product will primarily be a software product, at least initially. But they need to work with a hardware program for their software to interface to - I told Rebster a while back what I think they are doing with software; pretty comprehensive and will require years of data collection to get to subsequent release phases. Don't have time to detail it all here at the moment. But if it's what I think it is, it will be very cool!
I hadn't noticed this before... The Corporate/Investor Presentation on Titan's web site is now listing 20 patents. For some reason I was still thinking we were at 14 or 16. More is better!