Dive Brief:

• Medtronic has combined its robotic-assisted surgery technology and older surgical devices into a single operating unit led by Mike Marinaro.
• The company disclosed the change, which was first reported by MassDevice, in an update to its website, which now says Marinaro leads a “newly combined Surgical Operating Unit” that brings together “a legacy of surgical devices and the new robotic-assisted surgery technology.” 
• Medtronic created two distinct operating units — Surgical Innovations and Surgical Robotics — when it restructured in 2021 but has now joined them together in pursuit of a growth opportunity.

Dive Insight:

Marinaro became president of Medtronic’s Surgical Robotics business last year. At that time, Matt Perry was Marinaro’s counterpart at the Surgical Innovations unit. However, with Perry leaving the company late last year, Medtronic has merged the operations and promoted Marinaro to run the new Surgical Operating Unit.

“By combining these businesses, Medtronic will capitalize on one of the most attractive markets in all of healthcare — a market that is forecasted to nearly double over the next 10 years,” Medtronic said in a statement to MassDevice. “Surgical robotics operations in Colorado and Connecticut will remain open.”

Surgical Innovations is one of three, slower-growing parts of the business that accounted for half of sales last year. Surgical Robotics is one of five fast-growing units that Medtronic sees helping it to increase its sales in the coming years. The combination of the units comes as Medtronic is going through an “aggressive transformation,” management has said previously, intended to reduce complexity and improve capital allocation.

Marinaro has taken over Medtronic’s combined unit at an important moment for its robotic business. After delaying the program in light of feedback from surgeons, Medtronic is now enrolling patients in a clinical trial that could help establish its Hugo robot as a rival to Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci system in the U.S.

Talking to investors earlier this month, Medtronic CFO Karen Parkhill said surgeons “love the imaging technology, which is a little sharper, brighter than our competition” and argued the company is “really well positioned” to grow the business as the proportion of procedures done robotically increases.