On September 25, local time, at the 39th Annual Meeting of the North American Spine Society (NASS) held in Chicago, Medtronic announced that it has established a partnership with Siemens Healthineers to explore opportunities to further expand advanced preoperative and postoperative imaging technologies for spine care.

Medtronic and Siemens Healthineers plan to bring the Siemens Healthineers Multitom Rax™ imaging system to market and integrate the platform into Medtronic's spine surgery AiBLE™ ecosystem. The two companies also hope to collaborate on technology development, marketing and commercial activities to improve clinical outcomes.

Multitom Rax™ can be used for musculoskeletal diseases, including spinal patients. Multitom Rax™ features standing, weight-bearing imaging, cone beam CT and supine x-ray capabilities, supporting Medtronic's commitment to improving standards of care across the care continuum.
Skip Kiil, president of Medtronic CranioSpinal Technology, said: "The collaboration with Siemens Healthineers advances our commitment to reduce variability and improve outcomes for spinal patients. We are pleased to work with leaders in the imaging industry and leverage the depth of imaging experience and expertise, commercial footprint and shared commitment to data science to advance our AiBLE strategy and pursue better patient outcomes together."

In addition to the official announcement of the above cooperation, Medtronic also stated that it will launch a number of software, hardware and imaging innovation products. These enhancements are designed to advance Medtronic's intelligent ecosystem AiBLE™ of innovative navigation, robotics, data and artificial intelligence, imaging, software and implants, making the results of spinal and cranial surgeries more predictable.

In addition to endogenous growth, Medtronic continues to promote innovation through mergers and acquisitions, cooperation and other means. In the past two months, it has announced two consecutive collaborations with other multinational device giants.

In August this year, Medtronic officially announced a major collaboration with Abbott in the field of diabetes care, and the two parties established a major partnership. The cooperation aims to integrate Abbott's FreeStyle Libre CGM (FreeStyle Libre 3) products with Medtronic's automatic insulin pump (MiniMed 780G) and smart insulin pen (InPen system) to jointly develop a comprehensive system.
In China, Medtronic is also actively seeking cooperation.
In April last year, Medtronic China Phase II Fund was launched, which will deeply explore cutting-edge medical technologies such as digitalization, artificial intelligence, and robots, invest in diagnostic and therapeutic products related to various major diseases such as cardiovascular, neurological, and tumors, and use Medtronic's industry advantages to provide comprehensive post-investment management support for invested companies.
At that time, Medtronic Chairman and CEO Jeff Massa said in his speech on the spot that Medtronic is constantly using cutting-edge technological breakthroughs to accelerate innovation in disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment, but the complexity of the challenges faced by the global medical system determines that no company can realize this vision independently, and all companies in the industry, regardless of size, need to work together. Medtronic China Phase II Fund will provide a platform for such a cooperation model.
On September 20, Song Jingwei, vice president of finance, business development and investment for Medtronic Greater China, said in public that Medtronic headquarters has full confidence in the Chinese medical industry market and has currently laid out a full industry value system in Shanghai, including R&D, manufacturing, sales, training, incubation, and venture capital. Medtronic Fund will actively explore cooperation opportunities with state-owned investment industry platforms to better support the development of the biopharmaceutical industry.

At present, Medtronic's layout in China continues to deepen. In April last year, the foundation of the Medtronic Kanghui Changzhou Science and Technology Park project was laid, positioning it as Medtronic's global production base and Kanghui Medical's global headquarters. After completion, it will form a science and technology park integrating intelligent manufacturing center, excellent R&D center, innovation incubation center, and clinical customer center. At present, the project is under orderly construction. In March this year, the first product of Medtronic Shanghai Lingang Medical Technology Industrial Base rolled off the assembly line. Looking at the global device market, the strong alliance between multinational device giants has been reflected in many fields. The complementary advantages between each other may be able to exert the greatest innovation efficiency.

On August 26, Karl Storz announced that it had established a partnership with Fujifilm, and the two parties will jointly sell Karl Storz's operating room integrated solutions and Fujifilm's soft gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopes. This cooperation can provide more efficient operating room endoscope operation and data management, helping both parties to expand market coverage and attract more medical customers.
In March this year, Johnson & Johnson, GE Healthcare and other companies announced the progress of cooperation with chip giant Nvidia.

It is reported that Johnson & Johnson will accelerate and expand the application of AI in surgical operations through cooperation with Nvidia. Johnson & Johnson will obtain the right to use Nvidia's IGX edge computing platform and Holoscan edge AI platform. The two parties also plan to introduce AI technology into medical image analysis and disease diagnosis, and will promote cooperation in medical education and training. GE Healthcare hopes to promote the development of medical imaging by introducing basic AI technology. It is understood that Nvidia's accelerated computing and AI technology combined with GE Healthcare's medical imaging expertise will help make ultrasound diagnosis faster and more accurate. In the future, the complementary advantages between the strong may inspire more innovative sparks.

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