16 Jun

Connecting the Dots at DEVICETALKS

Last week, Line of Sight Group attended DEVICETALKS 2016 hosted by MassDevice. The one day event was held on Monday June 6th at the Science Museum of Minnesota and attended by 250 people.  There were keynote panels from medical device leaders and break-out sessions focused on industry trends and product management topics. The main point of discussion was the shift in the industry towards Value Management and favorable outcomes across clinical and economic dimensions.  There was considerable discussion around the ramifications for stakeholders – patients, doctors, payers and providers – and what this would mean for medical device makers.  For them, it was clear that the current model of focusing on FDA approval followed closely by how to get reimbursed would be changing swiftly in favor of valued-based methods for delivery and reimbursement.  Much of this change is driven by multiple factors including cost, quality and regulatory pressures.

There were speakers from medical device leaders, cloud based providers, innovation leaders, product management leaders, media, association and attorneys.  The product management break-outs discussed the medical device industry entering a new phase of software-defined value leveraging new levels of automation, big data, analytics, globalization and higher levels of engagement by stakeholders across the board. One of the goals likely to be enabled by the aforementioned is Personalized Medicine that will lead to more customization, just-in-time/low/no inventory, and predictive therapies.  When it comes to big data, several of the medical device makers said that they would need to partner with several players like Google, Apple, IBM and HP concurrently.

In listening to the speakers and talking to attendees, a number of items stood out.  The medical device industry continues to consolidate. The big examples were Medtronic/Covidien and Abbott Laboratories/St. Jude. With the smaller, emerging section of the market, there is a notion that once they achieve a certain run rate of $10M-$30M, they will be acquired. This is a complex industry with plenty of chaos and disruption, a lot of moving parts including shifting economics, high levels of innovation and regulatory pressures.

Events like this allow Line of Sight Group to listen to the market, observe, interact, engage and make connections. One of the key aspects that our Integrated Strategic Analysis requires is the ability to connect the dots when researching clients’ external environments to help them focus their strategic and go-to-market initiatives so they can protect and grow their businesses.

08 Jun

Reflections on ATA 2016

Line of Sight Group participated in the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) Annual Conference and Tradeshow held last month in Minneapolis.  The annual gathering focused on telemedicine, digital, connected and mobile health.  The event attracted 6,000 people, had 75 educational sessions and a trade show exhibit hall that featured 300 technology product and service providers.

There were several trends we noted as we spoke with visitors to our booth, attended sessions and roamed the exhibit hall.  First of all, Telemedicine, Telehealth, and the many iterations of “Tele” have moved to the cloud.  As cloud technologies and services have matured and become trusted via advances in security, privacy, reliability, performance, and mobility, there are many options emerging including advanced collaboration and integration offers for attaching/monitoring the vast and growing number of Internet of Medical Things (IoMT).   Some things that were previously disrupted by technology (blood pressure monitors with no connectivity) are now re-enabled by newer technology (a smart phone picture of the device with readings uploaded to the cloud and integrated into the patient’s Electronic Health Record).

Next, we also heard from some attendees who’d attended the event in the past two decades that industry consolidation was very evident.  We heard from people from all across the spectrum who were interested in getting started with various tele-initiatives but were not sure where to start.  This even extended to well-funded firms very focused on one aspect of their business.

All told, we talked to technology providers, device makers, integration firms, compliance specialists, health plans, clinical professionals, members of the media, government officials and more to get a sense of what is happening and where the industry is headed.

Events like this allow Line of Sight Group to listen to the market, observe, interact, engage and make connections. One of the key aspects that our Integrated Strategic Analysis requires is the ability to connect the dots when researching a clients’ external environment to help them grow, protect and focus their business.

03 Jun

SCIP 2016 Conference Thoughts

Last month we had the opportunity to attend the Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals’ (SCIP) annual international conference. The theme of this year’s conference was Collaborative Intelligence in a Networked World. Keynote speakers and breakout sessions focused on current and future disruptors to intelligence gathering – such as big data, predictive analytics, and artificial intelligence. While it’s important to adapt and adopt to new technologies, one theme that was also present was the need for human analysis and interpretation.

Data aggregation tools and news feeds may simplify the data gathering process, but often times they simply lead to more “noise” or information overload. What does the data mean? What trends are we seeing? How does a competitor’s statement resonate with what they have said in the past, and could we have predicted that move?

At Line of Sight Group, our focus on customer intimacy and collaboration emphasizes this point. While we’re always updating our technology and data gathering processes, we understand the need for human analysis and that’s why we leverage our Integrated Strategic Analysis approach to our project and monitoring work