Latest / ALL IN Kosciusko / How Warsaw Stays The Orthopedic Capital Of The World

Transcript

How Warsaw Stays The Orthopedic Capital Of The World · ALL IN Kosciusko

• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the ALL IN Kosciusko Podcast.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Matt Deuel.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Kosciusko County's orthopedic legacy was built through vision, innovation, entrepreneurship, and collaboration.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: But maintaining that leadership will require more than honoring what came before.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: It will require all of us to engage in what comes next.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Today we're joined by Ryan Christner, president and CEO of OrthoWorx, and Dr.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Michael Meneghini, the founder and CEO of the Indiana Orthopedic Institute, one of the nation's leading orthopedic surgeons and a recognized voice in innovation, physician-led care, and the future of muscoskeletal medicine.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Together, we're talking about the first OrthoWorx Summit, the future of orthopedic innovation, and why this industry conversation is also a community conversation.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Let's dive in.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Michael, Ryan, thanks so much for joining us.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 1:06
  Speaker: Thanks for being here, Matt.
• 1:07
  Speaker: Appreciate it.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Excited to have you guys here and excited to dive in.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: So, Ryan, for people who are joining us today, hearing this for the first time, what is the OrthoWorx Summit?
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Well, the OrthoWorx Summit, you know, when I think about this, it's it's a culmination of all of our stakeholders.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: We know that the ecosystem isn't just orthopedic companies, it's everybody that makes up our community and the supporting organizations that help the ecosystem thrive.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: So we're known as the orthopedic capital of the world.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Obviously, that's that's pretty well known.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: But what's not always uh the most profound is how do we continue to hold that title?
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: How do we move into new chapters?
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: And it's an invitation for people to come in, engage a little bit differently, and to help us write the next chapter.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: What does the Orthopedic Capital of the World look like in the future for future generations?
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Awesome.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Excellent.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: And so this year's theme is engage.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: What are you inviting people to engage in at the summit?
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and the biggest thing is we we cannot do this alone as OrthoWorx.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: It's not going to happen from one organization.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: It's a collective group of people.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: The ecosystem is broad.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: We know that just in our region, there's over 100 companies that represent the orthopedic industry between Warsaw and Fort Wayne.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: That's a huge concentration.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: We know that we're 272 times more specialized in orthopedic expertise in Warsaw and Cassiasco County than anywhere else in the nation.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: And that's a great blessing and it's a great curse at the same time.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: And so it's our charge to make sure that we maintain that, but actually push the thresholds of that as well into the future.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: And what does it look like for future generations as education continues to evolve, the industry continues to evolve, communities continue to evolve?
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: What does that look like?
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: And we want people to kind of lean in to help out and help shape the next chapter.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Perfect.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Perfect.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Well, when you talk about evolving, Dr.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Meneghini, you are joining us at the summit as the keynote speaker.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Thank you for that.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: And I know some of the big ideas you're bringing are around just innovation when it comes to care models.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: And I think people quickly jump to like robotics and you know uh surgical technology.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: For you, what what does that actually mean and why does the way care is delivered need to evolve?
• 3:25
  Speaker: Yeah, thanks, Matt, and and Ryan, thanks for asking me to be a part of this.
• 3:28
  Speaker: I mean, it's exciting for me.
• 3:30
  Speaker: You know, I remember as a as a uh teenager and young adult when I was I'm a graduate of Rose Holman in my hometown of Terre Haute, and I knew this place uh of Warsaw, Indiana existed.
• 3:41
  Speaker: I only knew it because I became interested in in medicine orthopedics pretty early on.
• 3:45
  Speaker: So to actually be part of it and help uh, you know, the state of Indiana maintain its, I think, its legacy and its rightful position as the orthopedic capital of the world, I think it's exciting.
• 3:55
  Speaker: So I appreciate being involved.
• 3:56
  Speaker: And I think, you know, if you look traditionally of the evolution of musculoskeletal care and orthopedics in general, it started off.
• 4:02
  Speaker: We were really good, uh, and I say the collective we, the ecosystem of Indiana, we're really good at making uh implants.
• 4:09
  Speaker: And that expertise was housed here in Warsaw, right?
• 4:11
  Speaker: We're good at making uh, you know, people call them generically widgets, right?
• 4:15
  Speaker: We were really good at manufacturing, really good at production, really good at engineering.
• 4:20
  Speaker: But I think what we're seeing now in 2026 in all of musculoskeletal care is there's an evolution of how care is delivered, and it may not be just, in fact, I would argue it's probably not just about the implant.
• 4:32
  Speaker: So what we talk about now, we've been talking about this for probably the last, you know, in reality, the last 10 to 15 years, you know, full disclosure, I was a high-level consultant at at um Stryker when we acquired Mako, uh, really the first robotic platform in hip and knee replacement.
• 4:48
  Speaker: And I remember being in the room and uh this the CEO, Kevin Lobo, said we just acquired this company called Mako.
• 4:55
  Speaker: And then all of a sudden the discussion around robotics, it almost forced us to have this.
• 4:59
  Speaker: And so we've shifted since that time from not just about making the implants to how those implants are put in.
• 5:08
  Speaker: And then we've taken the next step, which I think is where innovation occurs.
• 5:12
  Speaker: How do we deliver that care to the patient, not just from the surgical procedure episode that occurs in the operating room, but from the time the patient walks into your office as a physician all the way until they're fully recovered.
• 5:25
  Speaker: And that's happening due to a lot of um, I would say, macroeconomic forces that are occurring.
• 5:30
  Speaker: Sure.
• 5:31
  Speaker: Where we're the way we're compensated as providers is more across that entire, we call it the bundle or the episode, if you will, uh, the episode of care.
• 5:40
  Speaker: And I think if we're gonna maintain a leadership role in musculoskeletal health in the entire world, because the economies are all becoming integrated, we have to acknowledge that and innovate in that entire space, not just implants.
• 5:54
  Speaker: Now we expand.
• 5:56
  Speaker: And the companies here have done a great job.
• 5:57
  Speaker: But now we're gonna have to take the next innovative step, which is the entire episode of the patient journey.
• 6:07
  Speaker: And I think that's where uh we see innovation occurring next.
• 6:11
  Speaker: That's what I would sort of argue.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Ryan, what would you say that?
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: How how does that excite you from your perspective and as you think specifically to this moment at the summit?
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: Well, it's exciting to me because you know, we get to interact with lots of students all across the talent pipeline.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: We're in elementary schools working on STEM education, middle schools working on career discovery.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: You know, we're trying to, we're trying to help produce the next Dr.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Meneghini, right?
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: By having an engineer maybe find something that they enjoy.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Maybe it's a robotics club or something like that that really gets them thinking, I could I see a career in this.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: Um, what excites me about it is we have generations of really brilliant talent that are that are produced out of our school systems, out of our colleges, out of our universities.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Uh, one of the benefits that our organization gets to do is we we do 15 to 20 career and college and career fairs a year.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: So we get to interface with a lot of these.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: We go to Rose Holman, we go to Notre Dame, we go to Purdue, IU, all these high-level nation leading institutions, and we're talking to the best engineers across the country, and they're looking at Warsaw and they're looking at the orthopedic capital of the world, and they're saying, we want a piece of that because they've heard something about it, just like you did.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Um, and the sky's the limit.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, they think differently than we do.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: The way that they there's efficiencies that they're thinking about that we're not even attuned to.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: So it encourages me to hear where we're going and the pipelines that we're building to get there.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: Um, when we think about innovation, we think about things of the delivery of education and being innovative about that.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: We've got a VR experience to help kids maybe see what it's like to do a manufacturing job uh as a first step before they maybe go into a manufacturing facility.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: And it's just capturing that curiosity that they may have.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Or it's a work-based learning opportunity where they say, I'm interested.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: What does this look like?
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: What's the day in the life of an engineer look like?
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: And we can give them that opportunity.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: And so that's what excites me is we've got eager students that are eager to do that.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: We've got a community that's eager to support it.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: And obviously the innovation uh piece is continuing to change and evolve in a very fast way, and we're right here trying to trying to keep up and stay actually in front of that curve.
• 8:29
  Speaker: You know, I think there's a lot of synergy because uh if you look at what we created at the Indiana Orthopedic Institute, which is only four years and it's barely coming up on our four years' and four-year anniversary, yeah.
• 8:39
  Speaker: The innovation was creating a vertically integrated musculoskeletal platform.
• 8:44
  Speaker: And I think we know we we now we were just over in in um Toulouse, France, and all they wanted to talk about was what we built here in Indiana.
• 8:52
  Speaker: And then you've got, and then you walk out in the hall at this orthopedic meeting, they looked at care model, and then you walk out in the hall and you see you see Zimmer Biomet, right?
• 9:01
  Speaker: And you see DuPew.
• 9:01
  Speaker: So I think it is it is rightful, in my opinion, that we have innovation here in Indiana and we've got unique musculoskeletal companies that represent the entire ecosystem, all the way from patient care to when the patient walks in the door to the making the implants that we put in that change people's lives.
• 9:19
  Speaker: I think we got to lean into it and embrace it.
• 9:21
  Speaker: I think the it's right here in front of us, uh, and I'm excited about the ability to do it.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, awesome.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: So when you talk about that evolution, though, that's really leaning towards the patient journey.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: What is it that's changing in healthcare that's moving towards that physician-led, patient-centered model of care?
• 9:39
  Speaker: Yeah, there's a lot of there's a lot of macroeconomic forces.
• 9:42
  Speaker: So if you look at the you know, healthcare costs in our in our economy, it's up to 18% of the GDP, and that's too high.
• 9:50
  Speaker: So there's some uh there's some right sizing of the percentage of our GDP that's our healthcare budget.
• 9:58
  Speaker: That's happening.
• 9:59
  Speaker: And so these sort of these macro forces are like the government is one of them, how how Medicare uh reimburses us, how the Medicaid um uh allocations for hospitals are being structured.
• 10:11
  Speaker: And and the other thing that's happening all at the same time is we learned after the pandemic that certain people don't need to be in hospitals.
• 10:19
  Speaker: Most musculoskeletal care, which if the last century has been a hospital-based um, those are hospital-based treatment algorithms, they're now rapidly moving to ambulatory surgery centers.
• 10:32
  Speaker: And that has that is a paradigm shift when you take some of those complex cases and you take them from a hospital system to ambulatory surgery centers that have their own economic um behaviors and structures that so there's so much innovation happening right now.
• 10:49
  Speaker: It's like it's like nothing I've ever seen in my in my lifetime and my certainly my professional career, but that's exciting.
• 10:55
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 10:56
  Speaker: We as Hoosiers, you know, I believe in the talent pool, uh obviously I believe in the talent pool of Indiana, right?
• 11:03
  Speaker: And how we should shape muscular care in the world.
• 11:06
  Speaker: Uh, and I think it's an exciting time.
• 11:08
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 11:08
  Speaker: Exciting time.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: And so from your perspective, how does this new way of thinking really improve and impact the lives of patients?
• 11:19
  Speaker: Well, I think a couple things.
• 11:20
  Speaker: Number one, it's going to pull a lot of waste out of the system.
• 11:22
  Speaker: So if you look at one of the studies done not that long ago, um if we could save um almost $300 billion in healthcare, not by uh doing anything less for the patient, but by removing bureaucratic waste.
• 11:38
  Speaker: So I see it's almost like a Lean Six Sigma project, which I love as an engineer, right?
• 11:42
  Speaker: I love process improvement.
• 11:44
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 11:44
  Speaker: Well, our healthcare system had so much money in it for a long time, and the baby boomers now receiving the care, it is really stressed the system.
• 11:53
  Speaker: I think it's a good way.
• 11:55
  Speaker: Every every system needs to be stressed to improve itself.
• 11:58
  Speaker: And that's what's undergoing right now.
• 12:00
  Speaker: The shift out of hospitals and the and the economic reckoning a little bit are all happening simultaneously.
• 12:05
  Speaker: It's a jolt to the system for sure.
• 12:07
  Speaker: But it puts, it elevates, in my opinion, it elevates the doctor-patient relationship.
• 12:12
  Speaker: The minute you can take strip all the excess away and focus on the doctor-patient relationship, then you can get down to what matters to patients.
• 12:21
  Speaker: And it just happens to be the economics are are forcing that right now.
• 12:25
  Speaker: And then we tune, we we turn to partners in delivering that care that live in the ecosystem of Warsaw, Indiana, and now we can partner together in a meaningful way.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, that's great.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: So, Ryan, as Dr.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Meneghini talks about Warsaw's history of always doing that, our region has a storied history of excellence and orthopedics.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: For you, how does that still give us a competitive advantage today?
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: How can we still lean into that history?
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, that's good.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: I mean, having 130 years plus of orthopedic expertise, multiple generations, I think up to five generations of manufacturing expertise.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Um, you can't go to a coffee shop and not hear some sort of orthopedic conversation happening.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: And it's amazing to hear uh a couple engineers that are getting together that have been meaning to connect via Teams or on an email or something like that.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: They just happen to run into each other and they solve a problem in the coffee shop or it's over breakfast or over lunch or something like that.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: It's just something in the water that we have.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: It's our secret sauce.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: I think the challenge that we have is to be careful about looking back on past successes, and that's going to sustain us for the future, is we have to look at what are we doing to build a gen future generations of success by the work that we're doing.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: You know, there's there's the the Reverend DePuy, Justin Zimmer, uh, Dane Miller.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, those names are giants that built something very special here.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: And it's up to us to continue that legacy of expertise.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: And I believe the state of Indiana is looking at us saying, yeah, keep going.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: I think um across the country, they're looking at us saying, yeah, keep going.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: But there's some competition out there, and um, there's there's a lot of people looking at uh, you know, Warsaw, Orthopeda Capital of the World, kind of a rural community, kind of something, you know, it's tough to get here at times.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: However, when we host people here, um they're always amazed at the community that they get to see.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: They go to Winona Lake, they check out the local lakes, they walk down the village, they get dinner, all that stuff.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: It seems like it's a a a clip out of a Hallmark video.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: Um, and then they're amazed at the innovation that's happening here and the expertise.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: And so um that's what continues to excite us.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: That's what gets gets me out of bed every day, is we get to help promote that and help showcase that.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: But it's it's an interesting dynamic, is we're telling the story of the history while we're writing future chapters at the same time.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: So, Michael, as a surgeon, as an engineer, as an entrepreneur, and as a loyal Hoosier, talk to me from your perspective.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: When you look in at Warsaw in this ecosystem, what's unique to you?
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: What's really stands out?
• 15:15
  Speaker: Well, I think to comment to pile on what Ryan was saying, the history and the legacy, you can't forget, or you can't, you have to build on that.
• 15:24
  Speaker: But I will tell you, you cannot rest on the laurels either because the world's changing too fast.
• 15:28
  Speaker: Healthcare changes too fast.
• 15:29
  Speaker: So you gotta be on top of all the latest, you know, big data, AI.
• 15:34
  Speaker: It's gonna have to it's gonna have to dovetail and mesh together with the manufacturing uh and the production expertise and the engineering expertise that resides here.
• 15:45
  Speaker: You gotta bring them all together.
• 15:47
  Speaker: Because, you know, outside of outside of Warsaw, outside of the state of Indiana, no one is saying, oh, that's great, let's keep the Earth beat capital of the world in Warsaw, Indiana.
• 15:59
  Speaker: Every other 49 states and other countries of the world would love to have that in their state.
• 16:04
  Speaker: So let's be as a competitive person, let's just be real clear.
• 16:07
  Speaker: Yeah, the only people that are cheering about it are people who live in the state of Indiana, most likely.
• 16:12
  Speaker: Everybody else would like to take that title in a heartbeat.
• 16:15
  Speaker: Um, because if you look at medicine in general, it is still tried and true.
• 16:20
  Speaker: Musculoskeletal health is a big revenue driver.
• 16:22
  Speaker: And so the places where that reside are gonna be better off than those that don't have it.
• 16:27
  Speaker: So, you know, you you I think you're spot on, right?
• 16:30
  Speaker: And you're doing all the right things to keep uh innovation here, but it you're gonna have to, you're gonna have to keep your foot on the gas, and healthcare is changing so fast.
• 16:39
  Speaker: You're gonna have to lean into things that aren't just uh the tried and true here and turn the page forward in things like big data and AI.
• 16:46
  Speaker: As much as we may like or dislike about it, it's it's here, it's the future, and it's gonna integrate itself with musculoskeletal care.
• 16:56
  Speaker: Yes.
• 16:56
  Speaker: It already is, right?
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: No, and I but I love that call and that challenge for us not to take this for granted, right?
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Of we are sitting and standing on the shoulders of giants, as as Ryan mentioned, but we can't just be satisfied with that, right?
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: And continue to move things forward.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: You have to protect it, right?
• 17:14
  Speaker: The minute you start resting on it, someone's gonna go up, someone would love to take it.
• 17:17
  Speaker: That's really it's great.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: So, Ryan, for you, what would you identify right now as is maybe gaps or opportunities in the ecosystem?
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: And I I think you know, our ecosystem is collaborating better than ever before.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: I think that's one of the products uh that we got out of COVID.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's a lot of challenges.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: Um we had a lot of people that were pretty strapped.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: Um, a lot of our production and manufacturing continued to happen during COVID.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: Um, and thankfully, for many of our manufacturing guys, they had um good backlogs to put their head down and keep working, kind of that who's your way of just keeping our hand to stone.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: And but we had to collaborate.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: Supply chains were really riffled uh during COVID.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: And we had to work together, and so there were situations where we were solving problems together collectively, and that's continued to emulate throughout the years to follow.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: And so our supply chain is connected better than it ever has been.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: Um, I think you know, you mentioned a paradigm shift.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: I think we have a local paradigm shift that's kind of happened over the last five to ten years as well.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: Uh and some of its mergers and acquisitions and all that type of stuff.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: But our contract manufacturing network and our supply chain network, all the small, you know, the packaging companies, the anodized companies, the coding companies, and things like that that support the industry, they they are they were here.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: They started here because maybe somebody worked at a big OEM or they came to support that OEM.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: I think the paradigm shifted a little bit.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: And now our strength of the ecosystem is actually keeping our OEMs interested in saying we have no reason to not be here and have a presence and we should double down on the innovation that we're putting in here because that expertise is here and we can solve some problems because it's something that's in our DNA.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: With everybody waking up every day thinking about how do we solve the patient, add more, you know, create mobility for our patients and serve the patients the best.
• 19:21
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 19:21
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 19:21
  Speaker: I think I think there needs to be, I you know, I couldn't agree more.
• 19:24
  Speaker: The other thing I think we need to capitalize on looking forward is all the young talent.
• 19:29
  Speaker: You mentioned that younger generations think differently, going to bring new ideas.
• 19:32
  Speaker: I couldn't agree more.
• 19:33
  Speaker: Um, I think we need to lean on our universities.
• 19:36
  Speaker: I mean, look, I have if just my mind is engineering based, but if you look at technology, engineering, et cetera, like I have six kids, and if anyone wants to leave the state of Indiana for their uh undergrad education, they have to write and tell me and their mother why they and they have to justify it.
• 19:55
  Speaker: I need a PowerPoint, I need an essay on why you should ever leave the state of Indiana because two of my older kids.
• 20:03
  Speaker: They one's a graduate of um Purdue, one's a graduate of IU.
• 20:07
  Speaker: My oldest daughter's going into med school.
• 20:08
  Speaker: And then, but the four younger ones know the same rules apply to them.
• 20:11
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 20:11
  Speaker: If you're gonna go into tech or in, like we need to, we need to harness, if you look at engineering, there's no better schools than Purdue, Rose Holman, Notre Dame, right?
• 20:21
  Speaker: And and why would that's all here in our state?
• 20:25
  Speaker: Like, we don't need to look very far outside of our borders to get unbelievable talent in innovation and technology.
• 20:33
  Speaker: We need to harness that, in my opinion.
• 20:35
  Speaker: And I think Warsaw has a central leadership role in that.
• 20:38
  Speaker: Yes.
• 20:38
  Speaker: OrthoWorx and all the all the companies that are here, I think they need to harness that.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: No, and I think you're connecting some great dots for us.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: So as we think about talent, education, education, entrepreneurship, quality of life, why does that stuff matter in the context of again just continuing to double down, like you said, Ryan?
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: Well, we just know, I mean, future generations are looking at, and and even current generations, they're looking at when they look to put their roots in the ground, they're trying to look for does this place offer a place I want to live for my lifestyle and does it fit what I want?
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: And I would say in the past that's that was different, right?
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: Because you know, some of the remote work or or hybrid work models have changed.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: You can you can work in across the country and live here, or vice versa.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: Um, so living a place that that adapts to your lifestyle.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: Um, finding a place where you can grow and learn.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: And so where is education accessible?
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: And making sure that our education systems are on the innovative side and not trying to teach students what we've done in the past, but let's get out in front of it and really challenge students.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: We know that many in Generation Z are entrepreneurial mindset, so many of them, even before they're 18 years old or even in The college, they're generating revenue based on uh social media or they've got some sort of business that they're selling or something like that.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: It is amazing every time I talk to college students that they're generating revenue, which is great.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: That tells me that we've got future leaders and future business owners, and they're gonna they're gonna shake up the model a little bit different than what people have done in the past.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: And so we got to be open to that.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: Um we've got to shape a community that is thriving, continuing to grow, because if we're not growing, we're dying.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: And if we're not building um, you know, housing and answering to housing situations that we have, and we're addressing childcare situations that we have, uh, we're making amenities that people are proud to spend their time at.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: Um, those are the types of things that we got to continue to invest in.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: Um and then just where do people grow, right?
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: So across the entire spectrum of a life is where do they settle down?
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: Where do they, if they're empty nesters or something like that, what do they feel like is is beneficial for them?
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: And we have to address that.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: That's a huge spectrum for us to focus on.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: But that's why our um our mission at OrthoWorx is to focus on talent development, community enrichment is a huge part of that, and then also innovation and in and thinking about how do we accelerate our industry.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, great.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: So Michael, we've already touched on this a little bit, but from your perspective, how can this region just play a role not only in the next gen next generation of orthopedic products, but orthopedic care?
• 23:30
  Speaker: Yeah, I mean it's already it's already out in front, right?
• 23:32
  Speaker: So I think it's almost an obligation to take that leadership role because of its storied history.
• 23:38
  Speaker: So I I think that this um that Warsaw and the surrounding area, it how it already houses so much knowledge and content expertise on musculoskeletal care.
• 23:50
  Speaker: It it just needs it just needs to continue that and evolve with the the rate and the change that's occurring in healthcare, which is adopt taking the implants and the things it's done very well and taking the next step into big data, AI, and uh and embracing all aspects of of uh microscope care.
• 24:11
  Speaker: An example.
• 24:12
  Speaker: So uh in the Indiana Working Institute, we built an ambulatory surgery center, basically from the ground up for ORs, and we use something in that in that ASC, which is a digital technology to help us be more efficient.
• 24:24
  Speaker: Companies called Ospitech, but the patients they check in, they get a transponder.
• 24:28
  Speaker: This isn't an implant.
• 24:30
  Speaker: This isn't a it's not related to a stethoscope or any sort of other medical.
• 24:35
  Speaker: This is literally a transponder that goes on the patient that tracks them through the entire the entire um day's work as they go through the process.
• 24:44
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 24:44
  Speaker: And then we collect all that data because it's fed from from the entire journey.
• 24:50
  Speaker: So that patient journey is tracked and monitored, and then we use it to improve.
• 24:54
  Speaker: And it also interacts with the family.
• 24:56
  Speaker: It tells them your patient's out of the operating room.
• 24:58
  Speaker: Like these are things that you wouldn't normally think about.
• 25:01
  Speaker: And I think to Ryan's point, this next generation of talent, they think differently.
• 25:06
  Speaker: In fact, they're already making money in college on in tech, in the internet.
• 25:11
  Speaker: I don't even know, you know, and there weren't really computers were just starting really well.
• 25:15
  Speaker: Like to think all the internet you had to dial in and hear the weird squeaking.
• 25:18
  Speaker: That's horrible I'm that old.
• 25:20
  Speaker: But nonetheless, this new generation will be able to do things like that and take us to the next level.
• 25:24
  Speaker: So I think it's a talent issue in making sure that we lean into our history and say, this is the place, if you want to be in muscle scalable care, this is the epicenter of it.
• 25:33
  Speaker: So if you're gonna design the next patient journey uh technology, you want to be here to do it, right?
• 25:39
  Speaker: I think that's the lean in for it.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: So, Ryan, with the summit, I think what's exciting is that you all are really leaning in with this message of the future is not gonna be shaped by just a few companies or organizations.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: It's gonna be a community effort, a lot of people leaning in.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: So with that and with the event specifically, who needs to be a part of the conversation?
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Who who are you really saying?
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Hey, come and join us, be a part of this event.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: Um it's everyone, uh, and everyone has a part in it.
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: And it's easy to say, well, just everybody show up.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: It's it's uh come learn something, but everybody plays a part in it.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: As um we have educators that need to connect with industry partners.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: We have industry partners that need to connect with educators, we've got civic leaders that need to connect with both industry and education partners and understand what are the challenges that we're facing, how can they help make it easier for us to continue to do to strive forward with excellence?
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: We've got entrepreneurs that need to discover what ecosystem we have here.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: Um we've got community leaders that are out there, you know, building um the future for our next generations and they need to hear what what's the generations looking for?
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: Um, what are some current, what's what are current initiatives and programs that we're doing?
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: Um really in short, the answer is it's everybody.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: And I'll encourage even you know community residents to come check it out.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: If you don't know much about what the orthopedic industry has to offer, um come check it out.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: And it's it's cross-sector as well.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: You know, we've got a thriving ag community that's here that um continues, I mean, their technology is amazing.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: Uh, the more and more I learn about how they're facing agriculture and they're using high-end technology as well to develop, you know, sensor spraying and all that type, and it's all efficiencies to help feed the world.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: Um, there's some there's some cross-pollinating that can happen.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: We've got uh extreme expertise in manufacturing.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: There's you know, drone technologies that affect agriculture, there's all sorts of different types of um advanced manufacturing that could be beneficial to understanding what we do.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: You know, I would say we get a criticism sometimes being here where ortho works, we represent the orthopedic industry.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: All you're focused on is the orthopedic industry.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: That's not the case.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: We're a community development organization.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: Our manufacturers do manufacture orthopedic parts, but if you take it to the foundational level, they're advanced manufacturing.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: And if we have a student at our high school that's learning precision machining, by the way, we've got 160 students enrolled in precision machining.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: If that doesn't tell you expertise and pave the way for a future, I don't know what does.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: Um, if we have a student in precision machining or in engineering, they're not just learning about orthopedic manufacturing or orthopedic engineering.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: They're learning skills that are going to take them in agriculture, in aerospace, in automotive.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: And, you know, we kind of hope, again, maybe that maybe we should recruit.
• 28:42
  Speaker: I don't think I don't I wouldn't apologize one bit.
• 28:44
  Speaker: I'd say, yeah, we are focused on orthopedics.
• 28:46
  Speaker: Tough luck.
• 28:47
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 28:47
  Speaker: I mean, when I'm in a hospital and I'm building an orthopedic program, I won't I don't want to hear about cardiology because they're not paying me to solve cardiology.
• 28:54
  Speaker: The world's becoming more and more specialized, more and more focused, more and more hyper-focused.
• 28:59
  Speaker: So I would, I mean, yeah, I'm not telling you how to run ortho works, and but I'm but I'm telling you, I wouldn't I would lean into that.
• 29:04
  Speaker: I'd be like, hell yeah, we're focused on orthopedics.
• 29:07
  Speaker: Look where you're sitting, you're in Warsaw, Indiana.
• 29:09
  Speaker: If you don't want to recognize that it's got something to be, you should shout from the mountains, this is what we do well.
• 29:15
  Speaker: Because like I said earlier, if you don't want to shout it, somebody else is looking to shout it instead of you and rip it right out from under you.
• 29:21
  Speaker: So I would say, yeah, we are focused on orthopedics.
• 29:23
  Speaker: And that's our charge and our charter to do it.
• 29:25
  Speaker: I may be wrong.
• 29:26
  Speaker: Doesn't mean we don't appreciate all the other expertise that we have around here.
• 29:30
  Speaker: But man, orthopedics, I mean, it's got it, it drives this economy.
• 29:33
  Speaker: I can't imagine it doesn't.
• 29:34
  Speaker: It drives a lot of Indiana economy.
• 29:36
  Speaker: So I'd be like, yeah, we do focus on orthopedics.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: Maybe we'll uh implement our our uh in our education system.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: We'll make them write an essay of why they choose to go outside of orthopedics and they have to prove it to us.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: I love the absolutely also to see Dr.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: Meneghini throwing his name in his hat for a board position.
• 29:53
  Speaker: Okay.
• 29:53
  Speaker: I don't know.
• 29:54
  Speaker: No, no, no.
• 29:55
  Speaker: I just intentionally said I'm not trying to tell you how to do your job.
• 29:57
  Speaker: But I'm just saying I I'm a avid, I'm uh, as you can tell, a staunch and vocal defender of orthopedics and the state of Indiana both.
• 30:05
  Speaker: So I, you know, I lean in, you know?
• 30:08
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: It's great.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: Awesome.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: So as we wrap up our time, I'll give you a question for both of you.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: People walk away from the summit.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: What do you hope they take with them from the day together?
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: I hope people walk away feeling empowered, um, enlightened, maybe, of things that they didn't know about and and enlightened to if I lean in and I if I lean in and I want to help, um, and we give them the answers or the opportunities of how to help and how to engage, uh, we've got such a thriving thing here, and we've got some momentum that's building like never before.
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: It's it's up to us to kind of help shape the future.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: We want people to engage.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: We want parents even to talk to their students about what careers they could focus on.
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: And it takes everybody.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: It takes the educators, it takes the legislative officials, it takes our community leaders, uh, it takes residents to continue to lean in in a positive and productive way and opening up our minds to what's the what the future might look like.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: And so uh we want them to get a sense of what OrthoWorx has been around for and what we've done, but also we want them to see us as a trusted partner in the community, uh, both locally, regionally, across the state and across the globe of, you know, there's something special that's happening here and we're ready to pave the future uh for future generations.
• 31:25
  Speaker: You know, I think I think there's something about gathering in person.
• 31:28
  Speaker: I think that this new world of Zoom and Teams that emerged from the pandemic seven years ago, yeah.
• 31:34
  Speaker: I think human beings, we talk about this with robotics and technology and all that, and that's true.
• 31:39
  Speaker: But in healthcare, and I think even in collaboration, people like to be together.
• 31:43
  Speaker: The old the old you know, the old term uh gathering on the water cooler.
• 31:47
  Speaker: I will tell you, even today in 2026, I can get more collaborative spirit and make more collaborative gains if I'm face to face with another human sharing expertise than I can over a Zoom call all day, every day.
• 32:02
  Speaker: So I think the summit offers a chance for everybody to convene, and you never, I guarantee you, I guarantee you, you put that many people in the orthopedic ecosystem, education, civic leaders, executives, even the all the employees that you put them all in a room together, I guarantee you innovation comes out of that.
• 32:21
  Speaker: Put it for two hours.
• 32:22
  Speaker: I guarantee you innovation comes out of it.
• 32:24
  Speaker: There's no way it can't.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 32:26
  Speaker: But if you the one thing I'll guarantee you, if you don't get in a room together, it won't happen.
• 32:30
  Speaker: Does that make sense?
• 32:31
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 32:31
  Speaker: So I think it's a great idea.
• 32:32
  Speaker: Should yeah, should happen every year.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Awesome.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Perfect.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: All right, Ryan, give us all the details.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Where do people go?
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: How do they sign up, the dates, the time, all that stuff?
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: So the OrthoWorx Summit is going to be on August 12th at the Manahan Orthopedic Capital Center, one o'clock until five.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: We'll see where the conversation goes.
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: Maybe it'll continue after that.
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: Um, they can go to OrthoWorxIndiana.com events page.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: They can sign up, register.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: Uh, we really would love to see all the stakeholders that we mentioned and beyond.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: Um, we're excited about the format.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: I mean, we're gonna have Dr.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: Meneghini there delivering a keynote.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: We're gonna have a powerful panel uh kind of unpacking some of uh the recent news that we received about the National Science Foundation Award to the state of Indiana.
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: And what does it what does that mean to the state of Indiana?
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: What does it mean to the orthopedic capital of the world?
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: Um, and then we're gonna have some breakout sessions, and those breakout sessions are gonna be an opportunity for the audience to kind of step in a little bit deeper.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: And we're gonna unpack what's happening in the Orthopedic Capital as it pertains to town development, community enrichment and innovation, and really give uh the crowd an opportunity to kind of dialogue back and forth with our panelists and have some good, engaging discussion.
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: And, you know, we hope that people are leaving this curious about how to learn more, how to engage more, how to how to do things a little bit differently than what we focused on in the past, past.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: And um, you know, buckle up because we've got a lot of good opportunities and initiatives underway and more planned for the future.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: So this is gonna be just the the start of many.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: Perfect, perfect.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: And then Dr.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: Meneghini, anything you want to promote, uh, people to connect with you as they're hearing you, they want to connect more.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: I know you've got a lot going on with LinkedIn.
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: What's a great place for people to connect with?
• 34:17
  Speaker: Yeah, people can find me on LinkedIn, it's probably the best source to get going.
• 34:20
  Speaker: But you know we're doing, we're working together on the Unhinged Podcast, which is great.
• 34:24
  Speaker: Uh, really leaning into leadership, entrepreneurship, innovation, and what makes great leaders, kind of diving in deep to what's made them successful, and I think that's great.
• 34:33
  Speaker: Um I I think that everything that's going on in Indiana, I'm very, very proud um to be a Hoosier, and I think this impact grant is awesome.
• 34:41
  Speaker: It's $160 million over 10 years.
• 34:43
  Speaker: I would say if you're not in the conversation, you probably should be, or you're not going to get any of that money.
• 34:48
  Speaker: So that's some good uh some good that's some good uh funds from uh our government and the NSF that I don't think you want to miss out on.
• 34:55
  Speaker: And I'm proud of Indiana, the fact that we are you know in the final stages of that.
• 34:59
  Speaker: So that's really exciting.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Perfect.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Great.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Well, guys, thank you so much for your time.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: Thank you for the work that you both do to just help continue to grow the industry and the history and then what it means to our region.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: So appreciate you both.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: So the future of the orthopedic capital of the world will not be shaped by one company, one organization, or one event.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: It will be shaped by people who understand the moment, see the opportunity, and choose to engage.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: As Ryan said, to learn more about the OrthoWorx Summit, you can be a part of the conversation, you can register to be at the event, visit OrthoWorxIndiana.com and go to the events tab.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: To hear more conversations about the people, places, and progress shaping Kosciusko County, follow ALL IN Kosciusko wherever you listen to your podcast and visit AllInKosciusko.com.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening and being a part of ALL IN Kosciusko.