InnovaHealth Presents at Berlin’s SuperReturn 2020 – “The Next Big Thing”

InnovaHealth Managing Director, John McCormick (second from the left), discussing healthcare’s “Next Big Thing” with fellow expert panelists.

Last week we were invited to present at the world’s biggest private equity (PE) symposium called SuperReturn which is held annually in Berlin.  With 5,000 attendees from all stations in the world of private equity, we were among a mix of institutional limited partner investors, general partner firms and PE service providers.

The theme of the conference was how to differentiate in a slowing growth environment.  With our unique approach to growth investing in the medical technology space, the conference organizers invited InnovaHealth Partners to present.

The question posed to us was “what is the next big thing in healthcare”?  To us, this was about the future of the medical technology space which we define as mechanically engineered surgical implants and technologies that enable better surgical outcomes.

Our answer, in a word, was “proceduralization”.  That is to say, we think that better healthcare outcomes are more likely to be seen from improvements provided by technologies that enhance procedural outcomes. These could range from robotics to pre or perioperative diagnostics, digitally enabled sensors and the like.

We illustrated this by using examples such as our portfolio companies Koelis, which offers a specialized software algorithm that uses data science to track prostate movement for more accurate biopsies and focal therapies in prostate cancer.  We also highlighted Radiaction which offers an innovative robotically deployed radiation shielding technology enabling full body protection to medical team members performing minimally invasive surgeries.

Finally, we noted Alphatec (ATEC) which has been objectifying spine surgery with its SafeOp Neural Informatix system that provides surgeons with actionable information regarding both the location and the health of nerves at risk during surgery.  After our presentation, ATEC announced the acquisition of Eos Imaging which significantly improves the assessment of spinal alignment for pre and post-operative evaluation and builds significant accuracy into surgical planning.

To us, procedural enhancements combined with novel surgical implants and techniques will be the value creation engine of the future.