8 min reading time

Do you believe it’s worthwhile to market a medical device used in surgery directly to patients?

I don’t.

To be clear, I’m not talking about durable medical equipment (wheelchairs, diabetic supplies). I’m talking about devices that “improve patient outcomes in surgery.”

Here’s the three-pronged logic I gave an industry executive:

1. IF YOU ADVERTISE TO THE PATIENT, the doctor easily can talk him/her out of the superiority claim saying, “I’ve done many surgeries the old way successfully” and “you have nothing to worry about.”

2. IF YOU HOPE THE HOSPITAL WILL ADVERTISE TO THE PATIENT, they likely won’t use your name in their ads. For example, I can’t think of an oncology claim by a hospital that mentions a medical device manufacturer by name.

3. IF YOU SUCCEED IN GENERATING PATIENT PULL, it likely will come at a cost much greater alternate ways to convince your points of distribution to use your product.

Do you agree with my logic? Do you have a counter argument?

Are you aware of any medical device that has successfully marketed a device used in the hospital or clinic directly to patients?

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Managing Medical Devices within a Regulatory Framework

Having interviewed a number of members of our Medical Devices Group, Dr. Beth Ann Fiedler edited and is publishing “Managing Medical Devices within a Regulatory Framework.”

Take a look at http://medgroup.biz/Managing-Reg

The book will help you navigate worldwide regulation, consider the parameters for medical equipment patient safety, anticipate problems with equipment, and efficiently manage medical device acquisition budgets throughout the total product life cycle.

Good luck, Beth, and thanks for sharing this with the group!

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Discussions

What’s your opinion for Made-In-China medical devices?

Quality/Regulatory Assurance designations

Can we consider Israel representative as a part of EU representative for CE marking?

Injectable insulin pen category

Medical Device for trans-diaphragmatic pressure measurements

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Make it a great week.

Joe Hage
Medical Devices Group Leader

P.S. August is a slow month for me. If you need medical device marketing strategy and execution help, read http://medgroup.biz/Start-Here and contact me.

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David Gomez
Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), CEO/CTO of Infinitus Medical Technologies (iMT), and Patient Positioning Process Ninja!
haha, it kind of depends on the product. I agree its a slippery slope. But in the case of one our products it could work. For examples all surgical tables are 20 in. accross. There many surgeries that require the arms to be tucked. ~36% of population is obese. What this means is that patients literally hang off the table. Providers use blankets, tape, pads, diapers, towels, etc. to fashion the arms the best they can. Then slide a piece of plastic under matress to reinforce this mess, disrupting the velcro membrane holding mattress and patient on table. This impedes safe anesthesia access and monitoring and leads to a host of other issues that are well documented. Poor reliability of these methods could damage the ulnar nerve or the brachial plexus. In brief patients can lose (temporary or permanent) use of arms or hands. No product does what ours does and yet most barriers we face are cost (negligible) and change of poor habits. We would def consider focusing on the bariatric community.

Amin Kassab-Bachi
PhD Candidate; CDT in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine – Innovation in Medical and Biological Engineering
Usually doctors adopt the new device or procedure first. My opinion is that most of the public don’t have the necessary scientific or clinical background. So, even when a hospital promotes a new device it seems attractive until their doctor says otherwise because in the end patients generally believe that (the doctor is the competent professional with the required expertise to decide what’s best).

Michael Ram
MANAGING PARTNER- M. J. RAM & ASSOCIATES
No. Don’t market to patients. However, as someone long active in the medical device industry I always question my doctor and surgeon regarding what procedures they will perform and the particular devices they intend to use.
It is not uncommon for the physicians I know to ask me what is new or coming soon in regard to devices and medical procedures they are used in. But be aware there are those physicians that don’t like patients that know to much.

Debra Little
Director, Customer Support at B. Braun Group
I often joke that if I ever have to be hospitalized, I will show up with the products that my company manufactures. Seriously though, medical devices should be marketed to the professionals using them. That’s not to say that patients don’t have the right to know about these devices. I am sure patients would have liked to have known about the issues with certain IVC filters before they had them implanted.

Neil Kosterman
President & Member of Board | Delta Chase LLC
I remember when it became possible to advertise prescription drugs to consumers. According to many the sky was going to fall, if allowed. It hasn’t yet fallen, as near as I can tell. As long as the government allows Docs to continue practicing ethical medicine, I believe it to be quite healthy to inform consumers to a higher level. Is there a chance that some ads will be misleading, sadly that will happen, but as long as we can rely on the Docs to provide ethical guidance to their patients, and I believe we can, then it should be allowed. P.S. The good Docs I’ve known and worked with through the years enjoy the opportunity to work with knowledgeable patients.

Lorraine Kowalczyk
Sensory Panelist
I do not support this. I have to agree with Joe Coughlin. I did a lot of research when it came to replacing my hips. Afterwards I spoke to the doctor about my thoughts . In turn we were able to have an informed discussion . I say leave the direct marketing to the experts in the field for that specific device

Chander Bhushan Sharma
Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt
It depends on whether Medical device is user’s friendly. If it involves surgical procedures or diagnostic procedure, target audience can not be a Patients but Technical influencers.

Lynn Thompson
In-House Counsel for Medical Device Startups
I agree that most patients do not have the knowledge base to evaluate medical devices used in surgery. However, I think that the usefulness in marketing to patients depends on the type of device and the layers of separation between the patient and the device. For example, if a particular device is to be used during open heart surgery, it is likely too far removed for the patient to get involved in the choice (other than possibly a general type of implant). If it is something like laser eye surgery, the patient could potentially choose a doctor based on the equipment that they use.

Joe Coughlin
RETIRED BMET at Saint Francis Hospital
I do not support this because the general public is too easily swayed from advertising. They hear what they want to and whatever theu did hear becomes a panacea to relieve them of their burden; physical, psychological or otherwise
Medical devices are best routed to medical PROFESSIONALS.

Paul R. Garrett, MD
President, Smith Consulting, LLC
Hospitals advertising new devices is so much better than the endless and deceiving anecdotal stories I hear about cancer treatment successes. I truly believe they should be banned by FTC or FCC or both.

Joe Hage
🔥 Find me at MedicalDevicesGroup.net 🔥
Contributors, you made my week. I’ve been leading this group for five years now and it’s still highly rewarding to generate this type of discussion. Add to it Wessam making a new connection in Steve Anderson and you see the power of our community in action.

Weighing in, it was good to read some counter arguments. I agree, direct-to-patient makes sense for patient education and, for brands synonymous with the surgery (LAP BAND, LASIK), it can make a world of sense.

I still believe DTC is – to borrow a phrase from Stephen Pincus on this thread – a “fool’s errand” for most medical device manufacturers IF THE GOAL is to increase distribution and adoption.

There are many more economical ways to accomplish this.

P.S. I’ve copied this conversation on my Medical Marcom blog for posterity’s sake. You can see your contributions at http://medicalmarcom.com/medical-device-marketing/ask-your-doctor/

Ralph Polk, CBET
Senior Cyber Security Program Manager in Military Healthcare
Joe, this a very interesting thread. There are many different backgrounds and experiences contributing their input. I have had the opportunity to work at several medical facilities and served on capital review committees. In my experience, purchase request packets are submitted by the department leader based on either their personal preference, facility standardization or clinician request. I have yet to see one submitted based on patient demand. The closest I have seen are donation requests where a contributor is buying a specific quantity and model of equipment for the facility. As a Clinical Engineer, we review the packet for standardization, safety recalls, long term maintenance costs, etc. The two biggest factors in how quickly a packet is approved and funded are 1) patient safety issues and 2) significant, immediate ROI. Improved protection of Patient Health Information is another factor quickly on the rise.

Sam S.
Entrepreneur | Innovation Leader | Product Manager | Agile Transformation
When we started Delve Health (www.delvehealth.com), our pitch was to engage patients through data that already exists via social media avenues. We talked to quite a few people in the Device world and we get very negative response. Our approach was to use the data we already collect on clinical trials, publications, etc and build social media campaigns showing people that clinical trials is an option and using data that exists – we can prove it. So – as the company matured, we moved away from that a bit. Steve Anderson – would love to connect and learn more about your social media campaigns.

Stephen Pincus
President- Strategies for Life Science, LLC
I don’t think that a blanket statement can be made on this subject. It really depends on the device and it’s impact on the patient that is perceivable by the patient. For example, may devices that enable in-office procedures, such as varicose vein treatments can be effectively advertised to patients, with the device utilized being the differentiator, and this can drive patient traffic. On the other hand, if the patient is unable to personally perceive a difference, and equivalent outcomes are delivered, advertising to the patient is likely to be a “fools errand”, as you imply in your introduction to this subject.

Robert Poyser
QA & RA Manager at Henry Schein
Sometimes a DR has to sell the procedure to the patient, before they give consent… If the patient has heard of the process equipment/products used it can help!

Steve Anderson
CEO at Preceptis Medical
As a follow-up to my previous post, we have not yet converted parental interest into revenue. But, per Colin’s post, we have a number of things working in our favor: (i) like parents, pediatricians are actively looking for alternatives to general anesthesia, (ii) the FDA, through its SmartTots consortium, is advocating alternatives to general anesthesia for children under 3 due to uncertain long-term risk of general anesthesia on the developing brain, (iii) ENTs are aware of the concern with general anesthesia and want to protect their referral chain and (iv) hospital marketing groups are excited to have a way to distinguish themselves from competitors. We clearly envision daVinci as a model to follow. But, we are also trying to change a surgical procedure that has not changed for 60 years.

James “Eric” Carrubba
Senior IT Business Consultant, Strategy, Medicare & E-Care Portfolios at Kaiser Permanente
Direct medical device marketing past the end user the the patient is problematic. The medical provider is trained and qualified to make this evaluation. The patient most likely does not have this background of history to make a valid decision. This sounds very similar to what pharmaceutical companies have done with direct marketing campaigns.

Gary Abramov
General Manager – Product Development Manager at Pacific Blue Innovations, LLC
And yet, it’s happening all the time: in ophthalmic surgery. The various LASIK-type procedures advertise ‘new-and-improved’ lasers which ostensibly improve the outcomes. This is direct-to-consumer advertising and I’m sure lots of ophthalmic patients are asking/grilling their surgeons about them.

Joe Hage
🔥 Find me at MedicalDevicesGroup.net 🔥
C) If you succeed in generating patient pull it will come at a much greater cost, etc. Your argument here is based on the premise that hospitals and physicians will purchase a device on its clinical merits alone, without first knowing how large patient demand is and what the manufacturer is going to provide in terms of lead generation. Some specialists may do this, but the vast majority are going to ask really hard questions about the manufacturer’s marketing plan. A sophisticated manufacturer will be able to sit down with a buyer and demonstrate a proven conversion model that accurately predicts the exact cost to acquire a new patient based on catchment area, media costs, and level of incidence.

Hope this is helpful to folks!

Joe Hage
🔥 Find me at MedicalDevicesGroup.net 🔥
B) continued: The only device manufacturers who can count on hospital help are those that have a product that the hospital can use as a tent-pole offering – one that distinguishes them from their local competition and positions them as leading edge. Intuitive Surgical has had great success working with hospitals initiating branded advertising that mentions DaVinci by name. Most of these programs will be structured as co-op plays in which both parties contribute media dollars. Check out www.srmcroboticknee.com for an example of a co-branded site we recently produced for Smith and Nephew.