Hill-Rom's Innovations Make Surgeries More Safe, Accurate

Global medical technology company Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:HRC) recently demonstrated the impact of surgical patient positioning on skin and nerve pressure-related injuries. The company also displayed its latest technologies and solutions for surgeries at the educational seminar at AORN 2017.

Innovation at ARON

The company has been steadily introducing new techniques to help surgical teams work more efficiently. These measures include the launch of Integrated Table Motion for Robotic Surgery and Specialty Operating Tables for spinal procedures to new scalpel options. In particular, four products – Bard Parker line of SafeSwitch, da Vinci Xi, iLED 7 Surgical Light, Allen Advance Table – have been unveiled at the seminar.

While SafeSwitch expands Hill-Rom’s Surgical Solutions' range of tools to cater to a variety of needs and preferences, Integrated Table Motion combines Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci Xi. Through iLED 7 Surgical Light, the company has modified the OR lighting technology. Meanwhile, the Allen Advance Table has been designed for complex surgical procedures.

In this regard we note that Hill-Rom’s Surgical Solutions is sponsoring a patient positioning lab at which nurses can practice proper positioning techniques.

Taking the huge and growing market of surgical robots into consideration, we are highly encouraged by these breakthrough discoveries by Hill Rom. According to a Medgadget report, the global surgical robot device market, which was worth $3.2 billion in 2012, is anticipated to reach a worth of $20 billion by 2021. While the surgical market is expanding in leaps and bounds, we are happy that Hill-Rom is utilizing this opportunity to expand its footprint in this niche.

Recent Innovation by Hill Rom

Hill Rom is currently focusing on core business development through divestitures of non-core assets and expansion of capabilities in diagnostic cardiology. The company continues to make internal investments while capitalizing on a number of product introductions to accelerate growth.

Hill Rom had earlier announced plans to launch a mobile vest product under respiratory care, later in 2017. Meanwhile, it has launched a Welch Allyn Home Hypertension Program which allows patients to monitor their blood pressure outside the physician office.

This apart, the company has also launched RetinaVue 100 Imager last year. This product has made diabetic retinopathy screening simple and affordable. The company has also launched low-cost surgical table for developing and emerging markets. These innovative moves are expected to help the company improve its core business globally.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Currently, Hill-Rom carries a Zacks Ranks #2 (Buy).

Better-ranked stocks within the broader Medical sector include Quidel Corp. (NASDAQ:QDEL) , Hologic, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOLX) and Inogen, Inc. (NASDAQ:INGN) .

Notably, all three stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Quidel Corp. gained 27.90% in the last one year compared with the S&P 500’s gain of 14.68%. The company reported a stellar four-quarter positive average earnings surprise of 85.97%.

Hologic rallied 20.43% in the last one year compared with the S&P 500’s gain. Its four-quarter average earnings surprise was a positive 4.16%.

Inogen gained 64.23% in the past one year, better than the S&P 500 mark. It posted a trailing four-quarter positive average earnings surprise of 49.08%.

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