AAOS News: DePuy Synthes Advances Its VELYS Digital Surgery Platform

DePuy Synthes, The Orthopaedics Company of Johnson & Johnson, has unveiled how it is further advancing its VELYS Digital Surgery Platform using digital technology, robotics, and data insights to improve patient care. During the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) annual meeting, the company is featuring its vision for the future of digital surgery with new technologies and enhancements designed to connect an ecosystem that starts pre-operatively and continues intra- and post-operatively. 
 
Through its VELYS Digital Surgery Platform, DePuy Synthes is focused on delivering technology that can better inform clinical decisions across the full care continuum, starting with pre-operative patient selection through planning, surgical execution, and post-operative follow-up.  
Among the recent advancements of the VELYS Digital Surgery Platform to be featured at AAOS is the VELYS Robotic-Assisted Solution for total knee arthroplasty, designed for use with the ATTUNE Total Knee System. Now commercially available in the U.S., the VELYS Robotic-Assisted Solution represents the next chapter in robotics designed around how surgeons plan, execute and perform total knee replacement surgery. Installations in hospitals and ASCs are underway, and more than 100 surgeries globally have been successfully performed to date with the system. The VELYS Robotic-Assisted Solution has recently additionally been cleared for use in Australia, New Zealand and Israel.
 
“Knowing its potential, our team had been eagerly awaiting availability of the VELYS Robotic-Assisted Solution. We were beyond excited to complete the first commercial total knee replacement procedure in the U.S. using this system in June,” said Dr. William Barrett, orthopedic surgeon at UW Valley Medical Center. “The VELYS Robotic-Assisted Solution is particularly advanced in its ability to help surgeons precisely plan surgery tailored to each patient’s unique anatomy, allowing the surgical team to more accurately visualize and predict joint stability with the ultimate goal of providing the best fit possible for enhanced patient outcomes.”   
 
Demand for access to the VELYS Robotic-Assisted Solution has been significant with more than 1,000 surgeons and hospital staff receiving hands-on demonstrations to date. To meet the growing interest from hospitals and ASCs in the VELYS Robotic-Assisted Solution,
DePuy Synthes has brought the technology on the road with the VELYS Mobile Lab as a means for doctors and hospital staff to gain hands-on experience with the innovative technology through surgical simulation and virtual reality training enabled by Johnson & Johnson Institute. The VELYS Mobile Lab makes its last stop along its cross-country journey at AAOS, where surgeons will have an opportunity this week to participate in demonstrations of the technology.
 
“We aim to bring disruptive innovations to the orthopedics market through a connected and personalized digital platform,” said Sharrolyn Josse, worldwide president, VELYS Digital Surgery, DePuy Synthes. “With VELYS Digital Surgery we’re combining technology and data insights with an aim to increase decisiveness, enhance surgical precision and consistency, and make the overall experience more personalized for the patient and more efficient for all.”
 
At AAOS, DePuy Synthes will showcase other innovation highlights as part of its VELYS Digital Surgery Platform, including: 
 

• Introduction of VELYS Insights, an integrated clinical support solution that connects care teams to real-time, patient-specific data to help inform decisions pre-op and post-op. VELYS Insights includes two key capabilities: Care Coordination to help improve case management, surgery readiness and workflow efficiencies, and Patient Path Management designed to help care teams educate, support, communicate with, and remotely monitor patients using the VELYS Patient Path mobile app during their knee, hip, or shoulder replacement journey. 

 
“VELYS Insights provides the opportunity to assess a patient pre-operatively and track the patient post-operatively in a user-friendly way that’s simply not available with current EMRs facilitating the process between patients, schedulers and physicians in real time,” said Dr. Michael L. Swank, orthopedic surgeon, Beacon Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio.
 

• New Image Guidance capability for VELYS Hip Navigation, that is designed to offer precise analysis of implant selection and positioning through user friendly non-invasive navigation, pre-operative digital templating and case planning. It aims to help increase surgical reproducibility, drive OR efficiencies, and improve patient outcomes. DePuy Synthes is excited to introduce new image guidance for the ONETRIAL Analysis feature that will now enable intraoperative data driven decision making for patients positioned laterally, in addition to existing capabilities for the anterior approach technique.
• With VELYS Digital Surgery, DePuy Synthes is building a platform of connected technologies powered by data insights before, during, and after surgery, and designed to elevate the orthopedic experience for patients, surgeons, and care teams. We are taking steps to connect our technologies intraoperatively for real-time video data capture, transfer and display in customizable formats to meet our customer needs and provide a platform to support future development of data utilization capabilities.  

 
DePuy Synthes plans to expand the VELYS Digital Surgery Platform beyond Joint Reconstruction across other surgical areas.