Quick Bio Note: I'm an Engineering leader. I really know this R&D stuff. In my career, my teams developed 75 new implant/instrument systems inside six different orthopedic device companies (joints, spine, trauma, extremities, sports med, and bio).
During the COVID-19 economic downturn, all Orthopedic companies are scrambling to figure out how to best use their assets - Manufacturing, Product Inventory, Sales Force, Marketing, and shared services (IT, HR, Accounting, Customer Service, etc)
An important asset up for discussion is R&D.
The natural tendency during challenging times is to cut R&D. This is defensive thinking. This is how most of the public ortho companies think. For instance, Zimmer-Biomet just froze most R&D projects except for a few (Robot, Knee, F/A). Most ZB engineers are sitting at home updating files now. Electronic paperwork work. This is crazy. This is pure defense.
Instead I suggest that you employ offensive thinking. During C19, you are not going to be launching new product for a while. You are not going to be attending orthopedic trade shows for a while. Use this time to jump ahead of your competition in innovation. Take some ...
