ARTICLE SUMMARY:
The medtech industry has a key role to play in the digital ecosystem as healthtech-based companies forge relations with payors, employers, and providers, largely centered around SAAS/ pay per member per month commercial models.
As so many sectors of healthtech scramble for solid, high quality data, medtech has a unique ability to collect and deliver better access to certain kinds of data, through the widespread use of sensors, remote monitoring devices, and other data-capture tools that can be inlaid onto devices and combined with long-standing expertise about clinical care. From a product marketing perspective, this includes information on patient utilization, feedback loops, and device performance. Moreover, device connectivity is increasing as sensors become ubiquitous.
The question for medtech now is how to use the information it has access to for improving the patient experience beyond the point of intervention. Patients and providers do not necessarily want connections to particular medtech brands, but patients need ever-more help navigating the complex waters of medical care, and both providers and patients are eager for closer relationships, a potential opportunity. The only way for device companies to get closer to consumers is through the use of digital tools—a realization that has implications for medtech companies buying into digital health—or vice-versa.
“Medtech companies can place sensors and collect data but how to use the information to improve the patient experience beyond the point of intervention–that is what medtech needs to prioritize. That is the shift that needs to happen,” says Sudhanshu Bhatnager, an associate principal at ZS Associates, who co-led a webinar in February on patient engagement in medtech, based on a survey of mid-to-senior level industry executives.
While medtech may have the advanced engineering and internal AI and machine learning capabilities, as well as the sensors and access to patients necessary for high-quality data collection, it does not generally bring those capabilities to patient engagement strategies, adds Tanya Shepley, also associate principal at ZS Associates, who co-led the webinar.
Because device companies traditionally consider providers and payors to be their core customer base, they have underestimated the patient’s role in intervention selection. That attitude was slowly shifting, but it became urgent to understand and implement new patient engagement tools and strategies during the pandemic, as medical device companies have pushed to reactivate patient visits to doctors and bolster referral patterns, particularly for procedural interventions. Traditionally, the industry’s marketing strategies centered on the physician as the primary arbiter of device utilization and relegated patient engagement to a branding silo.
In the past, medtech executives have defined patient engagement in terms of branding, but its reach extends much further, as is highlighted by the recent success of the Zimmer Biomet-Apple MyMobility partnership. (see “Mymobility’s Role in Zimmer Biomet’s Digital Transformation,” MedTech Strategist, July 27, 2020 and “Smart Orthopedic Implants’ Moment to Shine,” MedTech Strategist, July 8, 2020.)
Some companies realize the potential, but don’t know where to start or which capabilities to build on to be more effective. The most commonly stated barriers are related to limited resources allotted to patient engagement efforts and difficulties identifying specific goals and quantitative metrics for measuring success of such efforts.
That said, the marketplace is changing and companies are increasingly willing to look at healthtech for best practice models. They are therefore putting intentional efforts into understanding the role of the patient and incorporating those insights into the design and commercialization strategies for products. “They are somewhat more open in understanding the role of the patient and what would engaging the patient brings to companies,” Bhatnagar says. “This is about becoming better partners for your patients as they make their healthcare decisions.”
Excerpted from “The Consumer-Centric Value of DarioHealth’s Acquisition of Upright,” MedTech Strategist, June 1, 2021.
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