By Omar Ford

There has been a lot of uncertainty in orthopedics lately – mostly from delays in elective procedures caused by the pandemic. However, Zimmer Biomet wants to bring some predictability to the space – specifically when it comes to determining outcomes for post-op procedures.

The Warsaw, IN-based company said on Thursday it was rolling out its WalkAI artificial intelligence-based solution, which integrates with the mymobility Care Management Platform.

WalkAI uses an algorithm to analyze a patient’s mobility to generate a personalized daily prediction of their gait (walking) speed at 90 days after surgery. President, Global Robotics and Technology & Data Solutions, Liane Teplitsky said the company was not aware of a similar solution from competitors.

“We have a phenomenal group of data scientists who have built the algorithm based on anonymized real-world data from our proprietary, extensive ZBEdge database,” Teplitsky told MD+DI. “Our algorithm works in near real-time, on a personalized patient by patient basis, automatically collecting the needed data and generating a daily prediction as the patient progresses through their recovery.  A patient is matched to a cohort of patients like them from our global ZBEdge database and if they are predicted to be in the lower 15th percentile of that cohort their care team is notified.   We believe this is a very differentiated healthcare experience.”

Don’t expect this to be the last AI solution from Zimmer Biomet. The company’s ZBEdge holds the promise of having interconnected technologies that provide clinical insights and efficiency for caregivers and patients.

Teplitsky said, “WalkAI is our first AI solution as part of our ZBEdge suite of interconnected technologies.”

 AI is only the tip of the iceberg for Zimmer Biomet. The orthopedics giant is moving into a new era – one where it’s leaner and more focused on its core products.

The company officially began the journey earlier this month when ZimVie, its dental and spine spinout went public.  ZimVie’s CEO, Vafa Jamali was a guest on a recent episode of MD+DI’s podcast, Let’s Talk Medtech, to discuss the spinout and Zimmer Biomet’s involvement going forward.

“Zimmer Biomet will hold a little bit less than 20% of our shares for the first year,” Jamali said. “They have an opportunity to get out of that position as they choose, but that’ll be their stake in ZimVie. We have an independent board of directors and obviously an independent management team.”