Tiger BufordYour Orthopedic Industry Expert (free today)

Discussion of AI tools for orthopedic device companies

9 Dec 2024 · 2 min

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1:45

In this conversational excerpt, Tiger Buford and a colleague discuss how AI is becoming widely accessible and inexpensive, exemplified by the speaker creating a personal AI clone for $20 a month. They argue that while large device manufacturers like J&J lack agility, smaller firms can innovate AI applications to address entrenched industry pains. The primary pain highlighted is inventory management: hospitals and distributors struggle with unknown locations of instrument sets and unused implants, leading to tied-up capital and responsibility gaps among manufacturers, hospitals, and distributors. The speakers suggest that identifying such pain points and brainstorming AI solutions—encouraging sales reps to imagine autonomous inventory‑management tools—could unlock new value for the orthopedic device sector.

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me. He said big data is the new oil field. Yeah, 2 years ago he said that, and it's even more true now, I think.
Oh yeah, it's— and so the, the device companies, you know, can't do this stuff. You know, J&J and Smith Nephews, they can't, they can't do any of this stuff. It's going to be the little guys that come up with new applications that are that people are gonna have to have.
Yeah.
I don't know where, I just don't know where everything's going. And it's, it's, everything's basically free right now too. You know, I mean, I just created a clone of myself for $20 a month. That's ridiculous. Yeah. You, I think you just gotta find where's the pain, you know, where's the pain in your business or your consulting, your service, your sales. And then you gotta, there's probably an AI tool that can help you with that pain. Yeah. Inventory. I mean, geez, that's a, that's a nasty one. Inventory management.
It's funny you mentioned that one. Just this morning, I asked a couple of our reps, I said, you know, they know I'm spending a lot of time on AI and everything these days. And I said, I want you to use your imagination to create an AI tool that manages inventory without a human and come back to me and see what you can come up with. And they said, well, you know, what are the limitations? I said, there really no limitations. Just use your imagination. You know, create some kind of Borgy science fiction kind of monster in your brain and see what it does. Because it's a, it is the constant nightmare in every device company.
Yep. You don't know where your instrument sets are, and you've got implants parked in hospitals that aren't getting used, and it's just, you got money tied up all over the place. Yeah, it's a big problem.
Yeah. And the hospitals, the hospitals won't take any responsibility for it. The comp, the manufacturers don't, don't want to take responsibility. The contracts are all written basically in the end of the day, the distributor gets screwed.