Thanks for the reply. I got your point and like I said before. I am a long investor of tmdi and I hope tmdi does get bought out. But I think it's important to have realistic expectations from a new technology like the titan sport. Like I mentioned before titan is definitely in line and has positioned itself well to be BO by either J&J and MDT. We are very fortunate that these large companies are having a difficult time in coming up with their in-house robot.
Obviously, as you mention there are many different benefits of the sport compared to ISRG and newer addition. My definition of ground breaking is from laparoscoy to robotics. No matter how bad the tech was abck in the early 2000s. It was ground breaking. I did see the original DaVinci standard robot in the early 2000s and definitely a monstrosity in terms of foot print, but other than CMR versius system the foot print in the or seems pretty similar. One console, one robot and one tower. Same with sport, one console for the surgeon, the robot itself and the tower system (which may incorporate the hospital imaging system), which I don't think we know yet if they are compatable with other imaging systems.
In terms of cost? Tmdi has not mentioned price of the robot and they can't do so until fda approval. So as far as I know it could cost the same or more than intuitive. My guess is that they will price it lower, but by a nonimal amount. Just like trxc, they didn't lower their price point significantly compared to ISRG. For the amount of money it takes to build a robot, it's almost impossible to sell at a much lower price point and try to be a profitable company. Also, the cost of the device for the hospital is usually is the inital cost or the robot and service agreement. Yes, instrumentation does make a difference, but not by much. (by the way ISRG instruments have 10 lives). By increasing the number use of the instruments maybe beneficial for cost, but there is a reason why intuitive recommends 10 uses. I hope tmdi comes up with a better option, but my best estimate is that these instruments need to be changed for safety reasons and they do wear out due to the size of the instrumentation.
The videos of surgeons operating on tmdi, does seem reasonably function, but it's not ground breaking. The movements are not refined and out of this world. It accomplishes what it's supposed to accomplish. A 25 mm incision is nice to only have one, but it can increase chances of developing hernias. ISRG has a 3rd arm in the same size which can help with self retraction and more important for single port surgery, but tmdi does not. I hope that the next Gen may have a forth arm. The 2d camera helps to localize the instrument ao that. I'm not sure If the self cleaning camera is included in the mcnally version since the recent rehash and update. I hope they kept the function in, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was removed due to the new upgrades to the camera system.
I believe if titan really pushes the Enos idea, and to be placed in surgery centers, it can be a benefit and possibly profitable. There is still a lot of work to be done by mcnally and his team. I hope they can get there with MDT's help and guidance of what they want so they can get BO. There are definite goals and metrics they have to meet with MDT, and if they don't we are screwed and done for.
I am just calling out what I see and wish the best of luck for every long tmdi investor, because I'm one of them.
