For decades, the medical device industry has survived and progressed on always coming up with better and innovative devices that have helped human being to fight several forms of killer diseases and save millions of lives worldwide. Around 10% to 20% of the revenues of big medical devices companies are put back in R & D to fuel this innovation. This has helped to produce new devices on a constant basis and have kept the medtech companies DEVICE focused. But soon that is going to change and change for better!
In the new scheme of things, one stakeholder of healthcare ecosystem that is emerging stronger and stronger is the patient. Patients are increasing playing a bigger role in choosing what they want, how they want and when they want. There is also a bigger focus on prevention rather than treatment. In all this, several industries has significantly contributed for the betterment of medical device industry in terms of coming up with new smartphone apps and making a sea of medical related information available at patients’ fingertips. And remember many of these companies are not traditional medtech companies – they are ISVs, they are consumer electronics companies, they are data analytics companies and many more. Can the medtech industry afford to be a mute spectator? Obviously not and they are not.
The response to these new developments is the – “Medical Device Plus” approach. Many authors call it device plus or product plus approach also. This is not at all a new concept. Apple pioneered this many years back. Medical device plus approach talks about enabling different services and solutions around the core medical products. The real value of any product is judged by the services and solutions that help to utilize the product fully. Same is true for medical devices also. For example, a call centre or portal that explain the working of a commonly used medical device, apps that help to monitor the vital parameters on a real-time basis, provides useful analytics and notifications, apps that are self-learning and learns the behaviour of a person and accordingly guide the patients to use the products more efficiently extend the usefulness of core products to a large extent. The possibilities are endless. In fact, many of these services and solutions can be delivered on a standalone basis also and can be supplied by third-party developers. The good part is that many of the leading companies such as Baxter, Philips, GE have recognized the power of the “Medical Device Plus” approach and have initiated different programs to extend the power of their devices and increase the value they deliver to the customer.
We are moving towards an age of Patient Empowerment !
( All the ideas expressed in the post are solely of the Author. They do not have any relationship with Author’s present and past organizations).
