Earnings season is off and running, and that means many golden opportunities to check in with the most important stocks in the health care industry.

With new U.S. health care policies going into effect, pressures from European austerity pressuring sales in the Old World, and large but often uncertain opportunities presented in developing markets, there's a lot of noise to distract investors from company-specific dynamics at work.

In the following video, health care bureau chief Brenton Flynn tries to cut through the noise and offers some of his key takeaways from last week's Stryker (SYK -2.55%) earnings report.