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.