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MedTech Market Access for a Digital Era

HealthPad
Directory:
Medical Technology
Tags:
commentary
digital health
MedTech
predictive analytics
value-based healthcare
  • Traditional, high-touch sales approaches fail to meet the demands of today’s healthcare systems
  • Value-based care, digital health, AI and increased patient voices are reshaping purchasing priorities and market dynamics
  • Marketing success lies in outcome-based partnerships, AI-driven insights, and integrated digital solutions
  • MedTech leaders must become digitally fluent, foster innovation, and prioritise long-term value

MedTech Market Access for a Digital Era

In the late 20th century, the MedTech industry thrived, powered by a sales-driven approach that prioritised the relationship between sales representatives and healthcare providers. These strategies, built on personal trust and labour-intensive engagement, played a pivotal role in bringing transformative technologies to patients. However, the healthcare landscape of the 21st century is evolving rapidly. The traditional relationship-centric sales model, once a cornerstone of success, is now at odds with the demands of modern healthcare ecosystems.

The rise of value-based healthcare, digital health platforms, and AI-driven personalised therapies has redefined how healthcare is delivered and measured. Providers and healthcare systems are seeking solutions and services that demonstrate tangible clinical and economic value, integrate into digital workflows, and support data-driven decision-making. This shift requires MedTech companies to transcend traditional sales policies and embrace innovative, technology-enabled approaches to market access. Success in this rapidly changing era demands not just products but also partnerships, where digital tools, real-world evidence, and collaborative strategies drive sustainable outcomes. It is time to rethink how MedTech engages with the healthcare sector in a world shaped by data, efficiency, and value.
 
In this Commentary

This Commentary explores the decline of the traditional MedTech sales model, once built on personal relationships and high-touch engagement, in an era dominated by value-based care, digital health, and AI-driven healthcare solutions and services. It highlights the misalignment of traditional strategies with modern healthcare needs and suggests ideas for reimagining market access. By embracing outcome-based partnerships, leveraging AI, and embedding digital services, MedTech companies can position themselves as leaders in the evolving healthcare landscape.
 
The Rise and Resilience of the Traditional MedTech Sales Model

The traditional sales-driven model in MedTech emerged as a natural response to the needs of both the industry and the healthcare ecosystem. Sales representatives were more than transactional intermediaries; they played multifaceted roles as educators, advocates, and trusted advisors. Their expertise bridged the gap between cutting-edge medical technologies and the overburdened physicians tasked with delivering care. Often, these representatives worked directly alongside clinicians, providing support in operating rooms during surgeries, or guiding optimal device use, ensuring that complex products achieved their intended outcomes.

This model thrived during a time when clinicians held significant autonomy in selecting tools and technologies. Purchasing decisions were often personal, based on trust and familiarity, which made relationship-building important. MedTech companies responded by assembling well-trained, specialised salesforces adept at navigating these nuanced dynamics. Firms like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott, and Medtronic solidified their market dominance - the combined 3 companies account for ~16% of the global MedTech market - by cultivating deep customer loyalty through this hands-on approach, reinforcing their reputations as partners in care rather than just vendors.

Even as healthcare evolves, the resilience of this model is evident. Its foundational emphasis on trust, expertise, and collaboration remains a cornerstone, albeit one facing new challenges in an era of value-based care and centralised purchasing decisions.
 
Why Traditional MedTechs Cling to Old Ways

Despite significant changes in healthcare delivery, many MedTech companies remain tethered to this traditional sales model. There are several reasons for this inertia.

1. Cultural Legacy of Sales Dominance
Senior leadership teams in many traditional MedTech firms are frequently comprised of executives who built their careers in sales, fostering a deep-rooted belief that success is driven by high-touch, relationship-oriented selling. This perspective often aligns with the sector’s historical reliance on personal connections to drive growth. Shifting such entrenched mindsets can be a challenge, particularly in organisations with a legacy of success using these approaches. It requires not only cultural transformation but also demonstrating the value of alternative strategies.

2. Misaligned Incentives
Many MedTechs continue to incentivise their commercial teams using metrics focused on short-term sales performance, such as quarterly revenue targets or the volume of devices sold. While effective for driving immediate results, these incentives create a strong disincentive to explore alternative strategies that may better serve long-term objectives. By prioritising near-term gains, companies risk stifling innovation and missing opportunities to align more closely with evolving customer needs, ultimately limiting their potential for sustainable growth.

3. Lack of Digital Fluency at the Top
Traditional MedTech leaders frequently lack the digital fluency needed to fully understand and embrace the transformative potential of tools such as AI, predictive analytics, and digital service layers. This gap in knowhow and experience can encourage scepticism about the value and efficacy of digital-first strategies, often leading to hesitation or underinvestment in these innovations. Without a clear appreciation of how such technologies can drive competitive advantage, organisations risk falling behind in an increasingly tech-driven healthcare landscape.

4. Complexity of Healthcare Systems
Selling to healthcare providers, payers, and integrated delivery systems is more complex than engaging with individual clinicians. These broader stakeholders demand value propositions that go beyond individual product benefits, requiring an understanding of system-wide outcomes, cost-effectiveness, and interoperability. Despite this shift in the healthcare environment, many MedTech companies remain hesitant to move beyond their traditional clinician-focused sales strategies. Such reluctance stems from a preference for familiar approaches and a lack of confidence in navigating system-based selling challenges.

5. Resistance to Risk
The MedTech industry operates within a highly regulated ecosystem, where strict compliance standards and patient safety are paramount. As a result, companies tend to be inherently risk-averse, with leadership often cautious about pursuing change. This hesitation is driven by concerns that innovation or new strategies could inadvertently compromise regulatory compliance, disrupt established customer relationships, or threaten existing revenue streams. While this caution is understandable, it can sometimes hinder the agility needed to adapt to evolving market demands.
 
Why the Traditional Sales Model No Longer Works

The healthcare industry’s transition to value-based healthcare, alongside the rapid rise of digital health solutions, has rendered the traditional sales model increasingly obsolete. Here’s why:
 
1. Shift to Value-Based Care

Under value-based care, healthcare providers are incentivised to deliver superior patient outcomes while controlling costs. This shift moves away from traditional fee-for-service models, where clinicians had discretion to select high-cost devices, toward systems emphasising cost-effectiveness and real world evidence-based results. MedTech companies must adapt by demonstrating their devices provide measurable, impactful value through robust data and clinical evidence, rather than relying on persuasive sales tactics or legacy relationships to drive adoption.
 
2. Consolidation of Decision-Making
 
Purchasing decisions in healthcare have shifted from individual clinicians to procurement committees, group purchasing organisations (GPOs), and hospital executives, who now drive the process. These stakeholders prioritise data-driven evidence that demonstrates both clinical efficacy and economic value, leaving little room for decisions influenced by personal relationships. This transition emphasises the growing significance of robust metrics and compelling outcomes in shaping purchasing strategies and aligning with institutional priorities.
 
3. Digital Health and AI Disruption
 
The rapid proliferation of digital health solutions and services has heightened expectations for seamless integration, real-time data sharing, and personalised user experiences. As a result, legacy MedTech devices that lack advanced digital capabilities are increasingly perceived as outdated and less competitive. This shift is obliging companies to rethink their product strategies and marketing approaches, emphasising innovation, connectivity, and alignment with evolving healthcare ecosystems to remain relevant and meet the demands of modern stakeholders.
 
4. Rising Patient Empowerment

The healthcare landscape is undergoing a transformative shift as patients take an active, informed role in their care decisions, driven by digital tools and unprecedented access to information. As highlighted in Choice Matters by Gordon Moore et al, empowered patients influence health outcomes and reshape healthcare expectations, demanding transparency, personalisation, and value. For MedTech companies, adapting to this paradigm requires prioritising patient-centric strategies, fostering collaboration, and delivering tailored solutions to remain relevant and trusted in an era of heightened patient agency.
 
Reimagining Market Access: Ideas for the Digital-First Era

To thrive in this digital era, MedTech companies must embrace changes to how they market and distribute their products. Here are three strategies for rethinking market access:

Outcome-Based Partnerships
The traditional fee-for-product sales model in MedTech needs to evolve into outcome-based partnerships that align the incentives of MedTech companies with those of healthcare providers. Such partnerships can include innovative risk-sharing agreements where payment is directly linked to the device's performance in delivering measurable clinical outcomes.

For instance, rather than selling a surgical robot outright, a MedTech company might partner with a hospital to deploy the technology while sharing in the cost savings generated by fewer surgical complications and improved patient recovery rates. Similarly, companies specialising in wearable health devices could base their pricing on tangible metrics, such as increased patient adherence to prescribed treatment plans or significant reductions in hospital readmissions, ensuring mutual value creation.

Challenges and Solution
Challenge Establishing robust data and metrics to measure outcomes.
Solution Adapt existing products to generate data and work collaboratively with healthcare providers to define clear, evidence-based performance indicators. Leverage real-world evidence to validate outcomes over time.

Leveraging AI and Predictive Analytics
AI and predictive analytics are poised to transform how MedTech companies demonstrate value to payers and healthcare systems. By leveraging data from clinical trials, real-world usage, and digital health platforms, companies can build predictive models that quantify the long-term clinical and economic benefits of their devices.

For example, a MedTech company specialising in cardiac implants could use predictive analytics to highlight how its products reduce lifetime healthcare costs by reducing hospitalisations and improving patient outcomes. Additionally, AI-driven insights can help tailor value propositions to address the unique priorities of each healthcare provider, such as reducing readmission rates or improving operational efficiency, ultimately strengthening sales strategies, and fostering more meaningful partnerships.

Challenges and Solutions
Challenge Accessing high-quality, longitudinal data.
Solution Partner with healthcare providers, payers, and academic institutions to co-develop data-sharing agreements that ensure mutual benefit.
 
Embedding Digital Service Layers
MedTech companies must shift from a hardware-focused sales approach to delivering integrated solutions that combine devices with advanced digital service layers. These layers might include features like: (i) remote monitoring for continuous patient care, (ii) predictive maintenance alerts to optimise the uptime of surgical equipment, and (iii) AI-powered decision support tools that assist clinicians in making more accurate and timely interventions.

For instance, a company selling glucose monitors could enhance its offering by integrating them with a digital health platform that provides patients with personalised insights and actionable recommendations for managing their diabetes. These digital services not only foster long-term engagement with patients and healthcare providers but also create recurring revenue streams, reinforce brand loyalty, and position MedTech companies as indispensable partners in the care continuum.

Challenges and Solutions
Challenge Developing and maintaining high-quality software capabilities.
Solution Invest in in-house digital talent or pursue strategic acquisitions of digital health start-ups.
 
Case Study

DePuy Synthes, a Johnson & Johnson company and a global leader in orthopaedics, exemplifies how traditional corporations can transform sales strategies to thrive in the 21st century. By leveraging digital tools, data-driven insights, and personalised customer engagement, DePuy Synthes has set a new industry benchmark.

Central to this transformation is the adoption of Salesforce, a powerful customer relationship management platform. By centralising customer data and enabling real-time sales tracking, Salesforce empowers DePuy Synthes to make data-driven decisions and respond swiftly to customer needs. Complementing this, the company has incorporated Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality into its sales processes. These immersive technologies facilitate product demonstrations and surgical simulations, providing healthcare professionals with risk-free, hands-on experiences that build trust and confidence in complex orthopaedic solutions.

DePuy Synthes also employs targeted digital marketing strategies, including content marketing, social media engagement, and personalised email campaigns, to expand its reach and foster brand awareness. Through these channels, the company communicates with both healthcare professionals and patients, driving lead generation in a competitive market.

Data and predictive analytics, plays a role in refining sales strategies. DePuy Synthes leverages analytics to identify market trends, predict customer needs, and tailor offerings to specific segments. Predictive analytics further enhances inventory management and positions the company to seize emerging opportunities.

Remote collaboration tools, such as virtual meetings and webinars, enable DePuy Synthes to engage healthcare professionals globally, sharing product knowledge and maintaining client relationships without geographical constraints. This commitment to accessibility and innovation is emphasised by personalised customer experiences, where tailored recommendations and dedicated support teams foster loyalty and trust.

DePuy Synthes’ transformation underscores the need for MedTech companies to modernise their sales strategies. By embracing digital innovation, data-driven insights, and customer-centric approaches, DePuy Synthes has enhanced efficiency and secured its competitive edge, serving as a model for industry evolution.
 
Call to Action: A New Vision for MedTech Leadership

The transition to a digital-first era demands not only new strategies but also a shift in leadership mindset. MedTech executives must champion digital fluency and cultivate a culture of innovation and experimentation across their organisations. Key steps could include: (i) establishing dedicated innovation teams to pilot transformative market access and value-based care models, (ii) integrating chief digital officers into the executive leadership teams to drive digital transformation, and (iii) aligning incentive structures to prioritise long-term value creation over short-term revenue goals. By embracing these changes, MedTech companies can break free from legacy limitations.
 
Takeaways

The traditional MedTech sales model, while effective in its time, has reached its limits in today’s rapidly evolving healthcare landscape. In an era shaped by value-based care, digital health integration, and AI-driven personalisation, adhering to outdated approaches risks diminishing relevance. The future belongs to companies bold enough to reimagine how their solutions are marketed, adopted, and integrated into the broader healthcare ecosystem.

By shifting to outcome-based partnerships, MedTech firms can align their success with measurable clinical improvements and cost savings for providers. Leveraging AI and predictive analytics empowers companies to demonstrate the long-term value of their products while tailoring offerings to the specific needs of healthcare systems. Embedding digital service layers not only enhances product functionality but also fosters long-term relationships and recurring revenue streams.

This is not the end of MedTech’s growth potential but a pivotal moment to transform. By embracing these changes, companies can redefine their role as essential partners in delivering smarter, more sustainable healthcare.
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2 weeks, 4 days ago

Ending MedTech's Debt Era: A Call for Strategic Renewal

HealthPad
Directory:
Medical Technology
Tags:
commentary
digital health
M&A
MedTech
personalised medicine
value creation
  • The MedTech industry’s debt-driven growth has succeeded but it now faces challenges like stifled innovation and inefficiency
  • Leaders must rethink M&A, prioritise deleveraging, embrace digital transformation, and foster R&D partnerships to navigate a changing landscape
  • Adapting to personalised home-based care and tailoring strategies for emerging markets are needed for future success
  • Achievement hinges on mastering digital health, sustainability, agile leadership, and global market adaptation

Ending MedTech's Debt Era: A Call for Strategic Renewal

Over the past four decades, the MedTech industry has transformed healthcare, improving, and saving billions of lives while reshaping society. Pioneering innovations have expanded access to care, empowered healthcare providers and patients, and redefined the management of diseases. During this period of change, debt financing emerged as a cornerstone of growth, enabling MedTech leaders to push boundaries and redefine markets through ambitious mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Landmark deals, such as Medtronic’s $50bn acquisition of Covidien in 2015 and Johnson & Johnson’s $16.6bn purchase of Abiomed in 2022, illustrate how access to capital has driven strategic expansion and reshaped the global MedTech landscape.

Even in times of economic upheaval, such as the 2008 financial crisis, the perceived stability of healthcare allowed MedTech companies to access debt markets with relative ease. Firms like Stryker and Zimmer Biomet leveraged this financial resilience to fuel acquisitions, enter new markets, and invest in emerging technologies. Historically low interest rates during the 2000s and 2010s further reinforced the sector’s preference for debt over equity, leading to a persistent reliance on leverage as a growth mechanism. This approach not only enabled companies to scale rapidly but also delivered consistent returns to investors while addressing critical healthcare needs.

However, the reliance on debt financing has subtly but significantly influenced the strategic orientation of MedTech companies. Decades of alignment with banks and financial institutions have tended to elevate the significance of finance within corporate decision-making. Yet, while partnerships with the financial sector have flourished, collaboration with other equally critical stakeholders - such as research institutions, tech giants, start-ups, and centres of excellence in areas like AI, machine learning, genomics, blockchain, and IoT - has often been neglected. This gap has constrained many companies’ ability to harness the full potential of rapidly evolving technologies and their promise to disrupt and redefine healthcare.

Today, the MedTech industry stands at a crossroads. For many traditional firms, stagnant valuations, slowing growth trajectories, and shifting healthcare priorities signal that the debt-driven strategies of the past may no longer suffice. Market consolidation, while enabling economies of scale, has had unintentional consequences that have stifled competition, diverted resources from transformative R&D, and entrenched an incremental approach to innovation. As healthcare systems worldwide confront aging populations, increasing demands for equitable access, and the integration of advanced technologies, the urgency for change has never been greater.

The path forward requires rethinking MedTech’s growth model - one that moves beyond the short-term gains of financial engineering toward long-term value creation. This entails renewed investments in transformative innovation, sustainability, and equitable healthcare delivery. It also calls for cultivating broader and more impactful collaborations with the world’s most dynamic ecosystems of innovation, from academic research hubs to disruptive start-ups and technology leaders. Only by embracing this shift can MedTech companies remain relevant, resilient, and capable of addressing the complex healthcare challenges of the 21st century.

Reducing the dominance of MedTech’s debt era is not merely an economic transition; it is an opportunity to reimagine the industry’s role in shaping the future of health.
 
In this Commentary

This Commentary explores the transformative journey of the MedTech industry as it transitions from a debt-driven growth model to a future focused on strategic evolution. It examines the consequences of debt dependency, such as stifled innovation and operational inefficiencies, and outlines a roadmap for success in an era shaped by digital transformation, patient-centric care, and global market adaptation. With insights on M&A strategies, deleveraging, R&D, and leadership, it offers a vision for the industry’s next chapter.
 
A Perfect Storm of Industry Transformation

Healthcare delivery is on the brink of change, driven by converging forces reshaping the industry. In developed markets, aging populations are driving demand for more efficient, accessible care models. Meanwhile, middle- and lower-income nations, including economic powerhouses like China, India, and Brazil, are rapidly expanding their healthcare R&D capabilities, challenging the traditional dominance of Western MedTech firms. To stay competitive, industry giants like Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Abbott, and Medtronic have strategically established manufacturing and R&D hubs in these emerging markets, where growth rates outpace developed countries.

Simultaneously, care delivery is shifting from hospitals to homes and community settings, enabled by digital health innovations and patient-centric models. Since 1980, advancements in medical technologies have driven a 38% reduction in the number of patient-days spent in hospitals, reflecting a broader trend toward decentralised care.

At the same time, advances in biomedical science and technology - ranging from personalised medicine to artificial intelligence (AI) - are transforming how diseases are diagnosed, treated, and managed. Such breakthroughs coincide with an era of geopolitical volatility, characterised by increased regulatory scrutiny, evolving trade dynamics, and intensifying competitive pressures.
In this rapidly evolving environment, the traditional playbook of leveraging debt to achieve scale is no longer sufficient. Instead, MedTech companies must navigate these complexities with agility, investing in innovation, operational efficiency, and strategic partnerships to stay ahead in a redefined global healthcare landscape.
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Revitalising MedTech Innovation: Strategies for Growth
The Consequences of Debt Dependency: Adapting to a Multipolar World

Historically, debt-financed growth has been a cornerstone of success for many MedTech companies, enabling rapid expansion and strategic acquisitions. This approach has allowed firms to scale quickly, consolidate market share, and deliver stable returns to investors. However, reliance on debt-driven strategies has also created challenges, particularly in today’s rapidly evolving landscape.

High leverage often constrains MedTech companies’ ability to allocate resources toward transformative R&D or respond nimbly to market disruptions. Overemphasis on M&A activity has frequently resulted in poorly integrated businesses, operational inefficiencies, and, in some cases, regulatory scrutiny - including FDA warnings and product recalls. This focus on financial engineering has, at times, come at the expense of building critical capabilities in digital transformation, innovation, and adapting to increasingly globalised and diverse markets.

Debt-fuelled consolidation has shaped an industry structure dominated by a handful of key players such as Medtronic, Johnson & Johnson, Abbott, and GE Healthcare, which consistently secure dominant positions in core segments like cardiovascular devices, imaging, and diagnostics. For instance, Medtronic alone holds >30% of the global pacemaker market, and the top 10 MedTech firms collectively account for ~50% of global market revenue. These industry giants leverage extensive distribution networks and economies of scale, creating substantial barriers to entry for smaller competitors and enabling tight control over pricing and market access.

While this concentration has historically provided stability and predictability, it has also stifled competitive pressures. Incrementalism in innovation - where advancements are evolutionary rather than disruptive - has become a hallmark of the sector. Additionally, pricing strategies driven by dominant players often place financial strain on global healthcare systems, compounding affordability challenges.

The industry’s legacy focus on US-centric markets and financial paradigms has delivered substantial success. However, this approach risks becoming a liability in a multipolar world where healthcare delivery is being reshaped by rapidly evolving technologies, diverse patient voices, and regionally distinct regulatory environments. To remain competitive, MedTech companies must adapt to these shifts by embracing long-term investments in innovation, fostering regional responsiveness, and adopting sustainable growth practices that align with the needs of a dynamic and interconnected global market.

Strategically, the path forward requires a recalibration from short-term financial gains to a forward-looking approach - one that not only anticipates technological disruptions but also integrates the evolving expectations of patients and healthcare providers. In this era of transformation, agility, inclusivity, and sustained innovation will define success.
 
Preparing for the Future: A Strategic Reorientation
 
The MedTech industry is pivoting toward a technology-driven, patient-centric, value-based, care model, fuelled by AI, cloud computing, extended reality, and 5G connectivity. Achieving success in this evolving landscape will require seamless data sharing, integration of virtual care, and robust cross-sector collaboration. As debt-fuelled growth gives way to a focus on resilience and adaptability, MedTech firms must align with emerging healthcare paradigms to stay competitive and ensure long-term success. This means embracing innovation, operational excellence, and digital transformation while rethinking traditional growth models to meet the dynamic needs of patients, providers, and regulators. The six strategies outlined below provide a roadmap to navigate this transformation effectively.

1. Rethinking M&A with a Strategic Lens
MedTech companies must transition from broad, growth-focused acquisitions to a more deliberate and strategic approach to M&A aimed at fostering sustainable, long-term value. This means focusing on deals that enhance core capabilities, such as digital health, advanced data analytics, robotics, or access to high-growth emerging markets. Acquisitions should align with the company’s vision for future healthcare trends, including precision medicine, minimally invasive procedures, and patient-centric, value-based care. Medtronic’s acquisition of Mazor Robotics illustrates this approach, enabling integration of robotics and AI into surgical platforms. Such targeted investments, which will be the subject of a future Commentary, ensure companies are positioned to lead in innovation and address evolving needs, rather than expanding scale.

2. Deleveraging to Unlock Flexibility
Reducing debt levels is an important step in freeing up capital for innovation and enhancing operational resilience. Companies such as Boston Scientific have exemplified this approach by strategically lowering their leverage in recent years. This financial discipline has enabled them to invest in high-growth areas like electrophysiology and structural heart therapies. Moreover, deleveraging fortifies businesses against economic and geopolitical shocks, laying a foundation for growth and long-term strategic flexibility.

3. Investing in Novel R&D and Partnerships
The future calls for a heightened commitment to transformative R&D, prioritising collaboration, and adaptability. Embracing open innovation models - through partnerships with start-ups, academic institutions, and technology leaders - has become essential. Johnson & Johnson’s JLABS initiative exemplifies this approach by offering critical resources and mentorship to early-stage innovators. These partnerships not only accelerate the development of ground-breaking solutions and services but also cultivate a dynamic ecosystem where ideas flourish, reinforcing a culture of innovation that drives sustainable progress.

4. Digitisation and Operational Excellence
Digital transformation has become an imperative rather than an option in today’s competitive landscape. Organisations must digitise their operations, products, and services to drive efficiency, improve patient outcomes, and maintain market relevance. Siemens Healthineers’ syngo Virtual Cockpit exemplifies the power of digital innovation, enabling remote operation of imaging systems to tackle real-world healthcare delivery challenges. By integrating advanced technologies, companies can address critical needs and unlock new avenues for value creation and growth.

5. Expanding into New Markets
Emerging markets offer growth potential, but capturing this opportunity requires more than exporting existing products. Success hinges on tailoring solutions to meet local needs, fostering partnerships, and understanding the challenges of these regions. Abbott’s strategy exemplifies this approach through its development of affordable diagnostic tools designed for low-resource settings. This focus has bolstered its presence in rapidly expanding markets like India and Africa, where rising healthcare demand aligns with innovative, cost-effective solutions.

6. Enhancing Patient-Centric Solutions
As healthcare increasingly shifts to homes and communities, companies must innovate solutions and services that empower both patients and caregivers. Wearable devices, telehealth platforms, and remote monitoring tools are no longer optional but essential for modern care delivery. Philip’s strategic transformation into a health technology leader emphasises this trend, with a focus on connected care and informatics. By aligning with patient-centric models, such innovations improve access, enhance patient outcomes, and address the growing demand for personalised, decentralised care solutions.
 
Beyond Financial Acumen: The Capabilities of the Future

The capabilities essential for future success in the MedTech industry extend beyond traditional financial engineering and banking relationships. To remain competitive and drive innovation, companies must develop and prioritise expertise in critical areas such as:
  • Digital Health and Data Science Harnessing the power of AI, machine learning, and data to drive innovation and improve decision-making.
  • Global Market Adaptation Navigating diverse regulatory environments, cultural contexts, and economic conditions to expand access and market share.
  • Collaborative Innovation Building ecosystems of partners, from start-ups to tech giants, to accelerate the development and deployment of new solutions and services.
  • Agile Leadership Embracing adaptive, forward-thinking leadership that prioritises resilience, ethical decision-making, and a long-term vision.
  • Sustainability and Equity Addressing the growing demand for sustainable practices and equitable access to healthcare, particularly in underserved markets.
Takeaways

The MedTech industry has achieved significant milestones over the past 40 years, largely driven by an American worldview and a debt-fuelled growth model. This era has brought life-saving technologies to billions, established globally recognised brands, and delivered substantial returns to stakeholders. These accomplishments deserve recognition. However, the landscape is changing, and the industry now faces a pivotal moment. The future promises to be different, shaped by transformative technologies, shifting care paradigms, and an increasingly multipolar world.

Forward-thinking leaders understand that the strategies of the past are no longer sufficient. They are embracing change by reducing reliance on debt, adopting disciplined and strategic M&A approaches, accelerating digitisation, investing in transformative R&D, and fostering collaboration across ecosystems. These actions not only prepare companies to navigate an evolving market but also position them to lead an era of innovation.

The next chapter for MedTech will be defined by those willing to adapt and anticipate the needs of a rapidly changing world. By building capabilities that align with the evolving expectations of patients, providers, and societies, these leaders will chart a path toward sustainable growth, technological advancement, and a more equitable and patient-focused global healthcare system.
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9 years, 6 months ago

Online video education can reduce the burden of diabetes

HealthPad
Directory:
Diabetes
Tags:
commentary
Diabetes
diabetes care
diabetes education
diabetes prevention
digital health
healthcare costs
 
 

Online video education can reduce the burden of diabetes

  • UK treatment costs for diabetes are £10bn per year and rising fast
  • London CCG adopts video education to reduce the burden of diabetes
  • Diabetes educational videos delivered directly to patients’ mobiles
  • Enhances patient satisfaction yet reduces face-time with doctors
  • Videos are peoples’ preferred way to receive healthcare information
  • Videos increase knowledge and self-management, and slows complications
  • Videos deliver 10 times the response rate of text and graphics

      


Managing My Diabetes is a new, evidence-based service, which offers a smarter and better way to engage and educate people with type-2 diabetes. It’s delivered by video directly to patients’ mobiles, and aims to significantly dent the eye watering, and rapidly escalating personal, financial and societal costs of this preventable condition. A London CCG is an early adopter. 

Dr Seth Rankin, co-chair of Wandsworth CCG’s Diabetes Group, Managing Partner of Wandsworth Medical Centre, and a long time advocate of the use of video in diabetes education, says, “In traditional doctor-patient consultations, patients often don’t absorb important information, and videos help to redress this. Managing My Diabetes engages patients, and provides them with trusted and convenient video information about their condition, which is a necessary prerequisite for any behavioural change”.

In addition to being the preferred format for patients to receive healthcare information, videos generate responses that are 10-times greater than that generated by text and graphics. Further, unlike health professionals, videos never wear out, they can be dubbed in any language, they’re easily and cheaply updated.
 

Importance of a patient user-base

Once people with diabetes are familiar with the initial Managing My Diabetes service, health providers can easily bolt on additional services to help people further manage their diabetes. This follows the model of digital champions such as Google and Facebook, which succeeded by using a simple core service, which successfully built a user base, and then, and only then, offered more services, thus continuously increasing the familiarity of their users with their services; and in turn the intensity with which they use them. Recently, the Department of Health failed to establish an online doctor-patient user-base for a £31m telehealth project, and it failed, see, Lessons from an axed telehealth project. 

Rankin describes the genesis and benefits of Managing My Diabetes:

      

        (click on the image to play the video) 


Video content library

Currently, there is no easy way for people with diabetes to quickly and easily obtain reliable online answers to their FAQs in video formats that they prefer, and there is no easy method for health professionals to post answers to patients’ questions about diabetes in a convenient online video format. 

At the heart of Managing My Diabetes is a content library of some 250 videos contributed by local health professionals, which address patients’ FAQs about managing their diabetes. Each video is between 60 and 80 seconds in duration, which is the average attention span of people seeking online video healthcare information. All videos are linked to bios of the contributors, which help patients judge the validity of the videos. 

Health professionals can cluster and send videos directly to patients’ mobiles to quickly and efficiently address their questions. Also, patients can rapidly access the entire diabetes video content library at any time, from anywhere on any devise. 

Managing My Diabetes is designed to: (i) enhance the connectivity between local health professionals and patients, (ii) increase the knowledge of diabetes among people with the condition, (iii) encourage self-management, (iv) slow the onset of complications, and (v) reduce face-time with doctors. 

Roni Saha, a consultant in acute medicine, diabetes and endocrinology at St George’s University Hospital, London, who contributed a portfolio of educational videos to Managing My Diabetes, describes risks for pregnant women with diabetes: 

       

     (click on the image to play the video) 
 

Traditional diabetes education has failed 

No one knows the true costs of type-2 diabetes, but its treatment costs alone are estimated to be some £10bn per year, and, in 20 years, expected to increase to £17bn; with diabetes complications costing a further £12bn per year. This highlights the pressing need to reduce the burden of the condition, which can be achieved by effective education. 

Traditional diabetes education that cost millions has failed to reduce the burden of diabetes. According to the National Diabetes Audit, less that 2% of people with diabetes attend any form of structured education. Instead, they regularly search the Internet for healthcare information, and use social media to share information they find. This is carried out at lightning speed, 24-7, 365 days a year. 

Health providers must come to terms with the fact that the balance of power has shifted from traditional providers of diabetes education to people living with the condition who are primarily interested in how education affects their outcomes. Failure to provide this link, leads to people disengaging and losing interest. 
 

What do people with diabetes want? 

Understanding the myths and realities about what patients really want from diabetes education is vital to capturing its value. A 2014 study by HealthPad into the efficacy of using videos in diabetes education concluded that there is a significant unmet need for trusted and convenient video educational material to help people manage their diabetes remotely: see: How GPs can improve diabetes outcomes and reduce costs. 
 

Age factor 

Because 63% of people with type-2 diabetes in England are over 60, a question that must be asked is whether delivering educational videos directly to their mobiles is really appropriate. The HealthPad study suggests that it is, and a 2014 McKinsey & Co survey on patients’ opinions of digital healthcare services agrees. Patients over 50 want digital healthcare services as much as younger counterparts. By 2018 smartphone penetration in the UK is expected to be almost 100%. The over 55s are experiencing the fastest year-on-year smartphone penetration, and the difference in smartphone penetration by age is expected to disappear by 2020, and Internet use has shifted from being exceptional to being commonplace.

Mobile devices are ubiquitous and personal, and competition will continue to drive lower pricing and increase functionality. Managing My Diabetes ensures that people living with diabetes will always be part of the doctor-patient network, which increases the variety; velocity, volume and value of educational information patients can receive.
 

Takeaways

Managing My Diabetes has been developed, tested and adopted by a London CCG. It has also a number of clinical champions. The service is designed to be easily and cost effectively embedded in primary care practices, and can be delivered in any language. 

If Managing My Diabetes is to dent the devastating burden of type-2 diabetes it will require national leadership to encourage CCG’s to adopt it, and health professionals to embrace it. Will NHS England and Diabetes UK play this much needed leadership role? If, in five years time, the burden of type-2 diabetes in England has not been significantly reduced, who will be accountable?
 
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