IRACST- International Journal of Research in Management & Technology (IJRMT), ISSN: 2249-9563 Vol. 4, No.2, April 2014

138

A CASE ON MARKET POTENTIAL OF PEDICLE SCREWS FOR LUMBAR SPINAL

STABILIZATION IN SPINAL SURGERY

Dr.S.Sudhakar, Assistant Professor, School of

Management, Srikrishna College of Technology, Coimbatore-641042,

Tamilnadu, India

This case was taken up with the main agenda to ascertain the spine specialty in Malnad Market. Spine is the most important organ of human body. Orthopedic and Neuro are the important specializations concerned with medicine. Basically deals with spine stabilization. It specializes in exact fitting of displaced bones, painless surgeries, faster mobility, total mobility and speedy recovery. One of the major applications of orthopedic industry is the bone implants. For spine, pedicle screws are the most used implants related to spinal stabilization. Mr.Matruboodam a well established pharma distributor wanted to enter this business. The case highlights the scope of entering the business of distributing surgical pedicle screws used in spinal surgery. Key words: spinal cord, spinal stabilization, orthopedic surgery, spinal surgery, market potential etc.

I INTRODUCTION

There are about 153 Ortho and Neuro specialty hospitals in Malnad, of which, 30 hospitals are providing spine treatment and doing surgeries. Major imported implant suppliers in Malnad spine specialty market are Blackstone, Medtronic, Globus, Synthes, and Depuy. There are plenty of indigenous brands in implants which hold huge market share all together rather than imported. Mr. Matruboodam a pharma distributor was thinking about diversification to related lines and had approached importers of implants. He was convinced about this new venture based on his thirty years in pharma field. His firm has completed more than 75 years in pharma distribution. His was the third generation & he anticipated that in order to continue in this business he needs to diversify to emerging areas. He talked to his friend a management professor Dr.Rao who had exposure to management consultancy assignment. After preliminary discussion with his good friend,, Dr.Rao decided to accept the consultancy assignment and agreed to complete the work in three months time. Both were happy at the outcome and Mr.Matruboodam assured that all resources and support will be given for successful completion of the consultancy assignment. Dr.Rao after

careful thinking planned his approach for carrying out the consultancy work.

II. CASE APPROACH

Dr.Rao set out his agenda and called bright young undergraduate students. He selected two students and gave them training in data collection. He devised a two stage approach which has at first stage meeting surgical equipment distributors and stage two meeting leading orthopedic surgeons and specialty hospitals handling ortho cases. It was decided to collect market data from distributors and to use a schedule to assimilate the data from two sources orthopedic surgeons and hospital. A small judgment sampling was decided to get the necessary information from the sources. A Dr.Rao and his team of students went about their assignment as per the approach outlined. First the brands sold in Malnad market was analyzed by talking to ten major distributors of surgical instruments and implants.

III MARKET STUDY -STAGE -I

Table 1. Most Moving Brand

S.No Company Number of respondents

Percentage (%)

1 Medtronic 2 20 2 Blackstone 4 40 3 Globus 1 10 4 Synthes 1 10 5 Depuy 1 10 6 Indigenous 1 10 Total 10 100

The results indicate that Blackstone brand was most moving brand sold by distributors and reasons for it being the fast moving brand is immediate service from importers, patient affordability and quality. Dr.Rao took note of this information for briefing to his friend Mr.Matruboodam and also verify whether the information is correct or not.

IRACST- International Journal of Research in Management & Technology (IJRMT), ISSN: 2249-9563 Vol. 4, No.2, April 2014

139

Table 2: Reason for being the fast moving brand

S.No Factor Number of respondents

Percentage (%)

1 Price 1 10 2 Quality 2 20

3 Patient's affordability 2 20

4 Immediate service 5 50

Total 10 100

Mr. Matruboodam wanted to know which alloy type was most moving in the market. Here the opinion of the distributor was sought and later ortho surgeons preference was also asked which appears in the later part of the assignment designated as stage two.

Table 3 Metal alloy preference

S.No Metal alloy type Respondents Percentage

(%) 1 Stainless steel 3 30 2 Titanium 7 70 3 Peek 0 0

4 Bio-degradable 0 0

Total 10 100

Titanium metal screws was most moving followed by stainless steel as hospital ordered only these alloys and Peek & bio degradable was not popular orders from hospitals. However Dr.Rao felt that this matter can be of further study and does not come under the scope of the current consultancy assignment.

III. HOSPITAL STUDY- STAGE -II

Dr.Rao briefed the second stage of his assignment to the two students selected. This being the main part of the consultancy where one has to ascertain the scope of this new venture. Here certain assumptions were made for selecting the hospital to study the scope of the pedicle screws for spinal stabilization. The factors responsible for deciding top hospitals are:

No. of spine surgeries done, No. of spine surgeons in a hospital. Seating arrangement and beds for patients. Number of theatres present in hospital. Patients satisfaction.

Taking all these factors in to consideration, the following hospitals are found as top hospitals in Malnad.

Table 4 Particulars of top five hospitals S. No

Hospital name

No. of Surgeries in month

No. of Spine

surgeons

No. of Operation theatres

1 Mallyasri Hospital

46 5 16

2 Hichigiri Hospital

34 4 6

3 Shroff Hospital

25 3 6

4 Katti Hospital

18 3 4

5 Mungod Hospital

15 2 2

The Top five Orthopaedic surgeons have been listed based on certain assumptions based on advice of doctors known to Dr.Rao.

No. of surgeries done by them No. of junior doctors trained by them Spine fellowships offered. Membership in various ortho and spine associations. Reputation in the spine Speciality Patients feedback

Table 5 Particulars of top five ortho surgeons

The hospital and doctors selected were administered a scheduled by the two students who had taken appointment with hospital administrators and doctors. The results find that there is abundant scope to enter this field.

S. No

Doctor Hospital No. of surgeries

in a month

No. of surgeons trained by

Dr

1 Dr.Mugal Mallyasri Hospital

22 6

2 Dr. Bole Hichigiri Hospital

20 4

3 Dr. Anihol Shroff Hospital

17 4

4 Dr. Chanag Katti Hospital

14 3

5 Dr.Misri Mungod Hospital

11 3

IRACST- International Journal of Research in Management & Technology (IJRMT), ISSN: 2249-9563 Vol. 4, No.2, April 2014

140

IV. CASE FINDINGS

The market for the pedicle screws have tremendous market potential as 4.7 % suffer from spinal problems. Blackstone is found as the most preferred brand for pedicle screw system in the Malnad as per the opinion of the brand used by doctors. The number of spinal surgery in Malnad was found to be 90 per month100% of spine surgeons are doing Lumbar spinal stabilization. In which, only 42% of surgeons are dealing with all the portions of spine i.e. Cervical, Thoracic, Lumbar. Titanium is found as the most preferred metal alloy for implant since it is a light weight as well as strong metal. Out of the three types of implants (i.e. Plates and screws, Wires and cables and pedicle screws.) Pedicle screws are preferred by surgeons. Dr.Rao tabulated the findings of the consultancy assignment and submitted the report for consideration of Mr.Matruboodam who had taken it home for reading after his business hours. After reading the report, Mr.Matruboodam cogitated -Does it really provide me the potential? How of Pedicle screws are sold on a monthly basis at Malnad? Is the opinion of the top five doctors enough to decide the scope of entering this new venture?

REFERENCES [1] W.Robert Molinari,Dynamic stabilization of the lumbar spine,Current

opinions in Orthopaedics,vol 18 issue 3,May 2007,pp 215-220 [2] Meyers et al,Use of instrumental pedicle screws to evaluate load sharing

in posterier dynamic stabilization systems,The Spine Journal,vol 8 issue 6,November-December 2008,pp 926-932.

[3] C.John Middleton and J. Arthur Tipton,Synthetic biodegradable polymers as orthopedic devices,Biomaterial,vol 2, issue 23,pp 2336-2346.

[4] C.Evangelyn Alocijia and M.Stephen Radke,Market analysis of biosensors for food safety,Biosensor and Bioelectronics,vol 18,issue 5-6,May 2003,pp 841-846.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Dr.S.Sudhakar, B.Sc (Physics), MBA (Marketing), PhD (Management Sciences) is at present working as an Assistant Professor, School of Management, Srikrishna College of Technology, Coimbatore. Earlier he served as Senior lecturer & Head, G R G School of Management studies, PSGR Krishnammal College for Women, Coimbatore. He has been a member of the Academic council and Board of studies MBA, G R G School of Management studies, Coimbatore. He has the distinction of clearing both UGC NET and SLET examination. He has presented 30 papers in both National & International conference and seminars. He has published couple of papers and seven cases in peer reviewed international journals of repute. His area of interest includes marketing, strategic management and customer relationship management.