Medical Device – Mike Hammons

July 22, 2013

How Medical Device Technology Boosts Productivity And Lowers Costs

How Can Medical Device Technology Boost Productivity And Lower Costs?

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Despite a lot of less-than-stellar news for the medical device industry with layoffs and the medical device tax, the good news is the industry is still projected to experience very good growth over the next five years.

In fact, a new report shows that the implantable medical device market is expected to grow 8 percent between 2011 and 2018, according to an article on the MedCity News website. With growth comes the opportunity to improve the way things are done operationally.

Medical device technology and software applications in particular are a good investment to help boost productivity, improve efficiency and lower costs. With technology, medical device companies can gain better visibility into sales opportunities, guide sales teams to improved performance, provide better customer service, and help the marketing department take advantage of the rapidly expanding channels of information available to interact with and engage influencers. Plus, when it comes to social media, new mobile technologies allow for enhanced productivity and quicker responses to customer inquiries.

Traditionally, medical device companies have not been on the leading edge of technology. It has ranked last among the life sciences teams in adopting technological innovations. But companies can?t keep operating the same old way. They need to replace legacy systems and move away from managing their businesses with spreadsheets.

Implantable medical devices will be a $73.9 billion industry in 2018, up from $43.1 billion in 2011, according to projections from the Transparency Market Research report. Medical device sales teams must be able to stake their claim in the market, which includes reconstructive joint implants, dental implants and breast implants.

?All segments are expected to see growth because of the increasing prevalence of chronic disease and an aging population,? the MedCity News article reports, but notes the orthopedic implant segment will continue to dominate market value and growth.

Source: MedCity News, January 2013

July 18, 2013

Why Is Quality Data Key To Today?s Medical Device Industry Trends?

Why Is Quality Data Key To Today’s Medical Device Industry Trends?

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Medtronic always has been at the forefront of medical device industry trends. In a recent interview on MassDevice.com, Medtronic CEO Omar Ishrak explains the need that a lot of life sciences companies have to prove the overall economic value of their technologies.

One of today’s most challenging medical device industry trends is that medical device innovation must demonstrate economic value. In fact, lowering costs is now mandated with the recent health care law changes. “Economic value, in simple terms, is projecting our value proposition in financial terms for our customers, not only the clinical benefits, but the financial benefits,” Ishrak says. This kind of thinking, he adds, is transforming Medtronic’s strategic priorities for the coming years.

But health care’s very nature makes it difficult for companies to present medical devices not as a cost, but as an investment. “The cost of healthcare is incurred during a procedure,” Ishrak notes, but “the benefit of that investment, if you like, is realized at later time and potentially in a different place.” In this context, it’s difficult for any medical device company to follow a patient’s outcome and the health care costs after a procedure has been done.

Medtronic and other companies can begin making the case for investment by partnering with hospitals and running pilot projects to focus on areas that reduce health care costs. The goal is to produce quality data that proves their technologies can reduce overall patient costs.

A CRM solution can help companies like Medtronic by providing ways to monitor these pilot programs and hospitals. Greater visibility through real-time analytics is the key to identifying areas where costs need to be reduced and where cost reduction has been achieved. They then can use that data to put together more qualitative analytics and even a case study to prove the overall effectiveness.

“Once those pilots are successful, we intend to scale them across those systems and eventually do even broader market expansion,” Ishrak tells MassDevice.com. Going forward, Medtronic will assess economic value before spending money on products, he adds, a new approach that will require changing “the mindset and the thinking and the culture in the company.”

Source: MassDevice.com, January 2013

July 11, 2013

3 Strategic Ways To Improve Medical Device Sales In A Changing Market

Improve Medical Device Sales In A Changing Market

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The business model is changing for pharmaceutical and medical device sales. The confluence of regulatory pressures, competition and payer influence is creating a perfect storm, with today’s market demanding better health care outcomes at lower cost.To compete, companies must adopt broader, more integrated strategic processes, according to an article on the Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry website.

“In this market no company can afford to waste its resources,” the article explains. “Considerable infrastructure, resources and expense go into the work of clinical affairs, regulatory affairs and reimbursement,” and in the absence of an integrated view, “companies are likely to overextend themselves.”

Customer-facing people, such as sales representatives, are the most impacted. The conversation no longer can be about the latest gee-whiz feature. Instead, it must be about how the product or drug will increase safety, improve efficiency, lead to better outcomes and lower costs. Clients want to hear how it will accomplish all those goals.

Plus, sales representatives now are working with a committee from the health and business side of the organization, including purchasing, legal and administration. It’s no longer just about the physician. That means sales representatives are interacting with five or six people in the buying chain, who all have different needs.

Companies can attain greater insight into this world and its implications for medical device sales by meeting three strategic requirements.

Develop a strategic process for managing your product portfolio: This process can optimize limited resources, resulting in competitive product lines and growth platforms.
Bring the right resources to decision making: Combining clinical, regulatory and reimbursement perspectives can ensure a comprehensive view of market requirements.
Ensure this comprehensive market perspective remains at the forefront: These perspectives offer crucial insights into shifting needs and buying decisions, new evidence expectations and hidden costs.

To accomplish these strategic goals, companies will need a global information system to define and capture data about constantly changing market requirements. Tools, technology and training, includingmedical device sales CRM software, are the best ways to address the challenges that come with having all these different conversations.

Source: Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry, January 2013

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Mike in CRM

June 13, 2013

4 Challenging Medical Device Industry Trends Facing Entrepreneurs

medical-device-industry-challenges | Photo Courtesy of l i g h t p o e t http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightpoet/7077355135/sizes/q/ Today?s industry is ripe for health technology entrepreneurs, according to an article on the MassDevice website. While recent health care reform laws are heavily focused on providers, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, medical device industry trends suggest new opportunities for technology companies in health care innovation.

Hospitals, in particular, are looking for ways to reduce costs and improve outcomes, which means companies must bring products to market that will improve efficiency, speed and outcomes.

For example, if a company has a new knee that?s easier to implant and features a faster recovery time, that would make for a great investment. For payers and providers, it?s not strictly about cost-cutting anymore.

The Affordable Care Act also is driving a greater focus on specialists and referrals. Specialization helps increase expertise and efficiency. Creating a system that improves this patient referral process, which is largely manual today, could reap huge savings for larger hospitals and clinics.

While today?s industry is ripe for health technology entrepreneurs, they face four challenging medical device industry trends.

Read more here >>>

June 11, 2013

How Can Partnerships Spur On Medical Device Innovation Despite Federal Funding Cuts?

Partnerships Spur Medical Device Funding Opportunities Regardless of what happens with the fiscal cliff, medical device companies that depend on government research grants should expect and prepare for the fact that funding from federal sources will continue to be harder to find.

Cuts to programs such as the National Institutes of Health could hampermedical device innovation, suggests an article on the Birmingham Business Journal website. The article examines what cuts could mean for biotech firms.

Federal research funding is crucial for ongoing technological innovation, says Raj Singh, CEO of Vivo Biosciences, a company that grows small organs for pharmaceutical testing.

“Those programs are critical for companies like us so we can take innovative ideas to the market and grow our business,” Singh tells the Birmingham Business Journal. Since Vivo started in 2004, the Birmingham, Ala., company has received $5.4 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health and NASA. According to Singh, losing such funding could halt research projects.
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June 7, 2013

3 Tactics To Streamline Medical Device Sales

Companies in the medical device industry must find ways to offer cost-efficient solutions to their price-conscious clients in medical centers. Many firms could lower prices by strategically streamlining their medical device sales models.

At most device companies, ?about 40 percent of their budgets are used to market and sell their products,? says Gavin Fabian, CEO of MedPassage, in an article on the Becker?s ASC Review website. Fabian calls these costs ?unsustainable,? explaining that ?the days of a salesman making high six-figure incomes, by spending their days inside the operating rooms of a few busy surgeons, are coming to end.?

To stay competitive, companies must pursue alternative, more efficient methods of sales and medical device marketing.

In fact, physicians are starting to prefer electronic interactions over face-to-face interactions. Most simply don?t have time to talk to a representative. So, instead of having 15 reps knocking on their door, they can take 15 minutes and talk electronically via Skype at a time that?s most convenient for them. The same holds true for recorded videos that they can watch at any time on their computer.

Fabian, in his interview on the Becker?s ASC Review website, raises three good tactics medical device companies could use to lower medical device sales costs.

Define which devices can be safely used without a sales representative present.
Limit sales representative costs on stable technologies.
Emphasize clinical data and cost efficiency in medical device marketing.

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May 29, 2013

How Could Focusing On Emerging Markets Boost Medical Device Sales?

Focusing On Emerging Markets Can Help Boost Medical Device Sales

Focusing On Emerging Markets Can Boost Medical Device Sales

High-performing companies are realizing the potential for medical device sales in untapped emerging markets. Moving beyond the North American borders, however, is easier said than done. It?s a long and hard process, not to mention expensive.

Compared to many other industries, the medical technology industry has lagged in terms of seeing emerging markets as key to future growth, according to an article on the IndustryWeek website.

Until recently, the U.S., Western Europe and Japan offered the greatest rewards for medical device firms, but now those rewards are shifting into emerging markets ? not only the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) but also Turkey, Mexico, Malaysia, South Africa and the Czech Republic. Industry leaders have taken note, making these new markets a strategic priority.

Most medical device companies have fewer than 200 employees and they started in the U.S. simply because it?s their backyard. They?re not aware of what it takes to grow their medical device sales outside of the U.S.

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May 22, 2013

How Can Companies Overcome The Medical Device Tax With Technology?

How Can Companies Overcome The Medical Device Tax With Technology? Clearly, the medical device industry was hit hard in 2012. More than 7,000 people were laid off. No wonder an article on the MassDevice website calls it ?the year of the layoff.?

Some of the medical device industry?s biggest companies announced significant workforce reductions in 2012, often in attempts to cut costs ahead of the medical device tax, which went into effect this year.

Medical device company Stryker, for example, planned to reduce its workforce by 5 percent throughout last year due to an anticipated $150 million in medical device tax compliance costs. According to a recent roundup article of industry layoffs on the MassDevice website, the impending tax also played a role in Hill-Rom Holdings? decision to lay off 200 workers, which amounts to 3 percent of its workforce.

Yet others, such as Covidien and St. Jude Medical, downplayed the role the tax played in their job cuts and outsourcing. John Heinmiller, a vice president at St. Jude Medical, described the medical device tax as just one of many financial pressures facing the business.

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May 14, 2013

How Can A CRM Solution Help Boost Medical Device Sales?

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As the medical device industry recovers from the recession, manufacturing companies can increase productivity in two key areas. The first is improving their systems for managing supply chains and inventory, and the second involves enhancing medical device sales models by understanding the behaviors and patterns of their most effective salespeople.

For medical device firms pursuing operational excellence, it’s critical to reduce waste, especially waste related to inventory that sits for months on warehouse shelves, an article on the Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry website explains.

When it comes to inventory and supply management, a lot of organizations rely on IT or another party to aggregate data for them, which has its drawbacks in terms of efficiency. Instead, medical device companies can access real-time data without relying on an outside group by switching to a good business intelligence system with an easy-to-read and powerful dashboard.

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How Can Medical Device Technology Boost Productivity And Lower Costs?

Improve Medical Device Sales In A Changing Market

4 Challenging Medical Device Industry Trends Facing Entrepreneurs

How Can Partnerships Spur On Medical Device Innovation Despite Federal Funding Cuts?

3 Tactics To Streamline Medical Device Sales

Focusing On Emerging Markets Can Help Boost Medical Device Sales

How Can Companies Overcome The Medical Device Tax With Technology?

3 Ideas For Improving Medical Device Sales In 2013

How Can A CRM Solution Help Boost Medical Device Sales?