25 Oct 09 Medical Device Industry Resources & References
There is a ton of information available to medical device service providers to keep up with medical technologies, industry trends, news, etc. Here are a few free references:
Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry
Orthopedic Design & Technology
All of these sources have great content on their websites. All of these sources have great print periodicals that are also FREE.
If you know of other resources to share with INpact, leave a comment.
Tags: Indiana, medical device, product development
16 Oct 09 Consider This: You Are An Expert
Sometimes Midwesterners are too humble. What does your company do? You might underestimate the products and services you offer. Consider this: you are an expert.
Social media can be one way for you to exhibit your expertness (yes, it’s a word). During the October 16 INpact meeting, we had a guest speaker talk about social media. We were all too focused on ROI. If I spend time on social media, how and when will I get customers from this? Think of social media in another way. Think of leveraging social media as a way for you to communicate what you do to a large audience.
Some were concerned that engaging in social media wouldn’t work because of confidentiality and regulations. I assure you that it is possible to be active in the social media universe and not breech confidentiality or be out of compliance.
Let me use an example from today’s discussion (Disclaimer: I’m not trying to pick on anyone but attempting to demonstrate how conventional wisdom about social media might be incorrect). Dr. Toth of Midwest Institute for Clinical Research (MICR) stated that he could not use twitter or other social media tools because it would violate confidentiality agreements he has in place with his clients and there would be some concern about violating FDA regulations. I just visited his website tonight and noticed the following message:
Volunteers are needed for research studies for obesity, high cholesterol, hypertension, and diabetes
Couldn’t this be exactly the type of message to communicate via social media?
Until recently, I knew very little about MICR. Pete Kissinger tells me Dr. Toth and MICR is a top-notch resource for conducting clinical research. I’m sure Dr. Toth knows more about clinical research than many of us ever will. I’m sure Dr. Toth could advise people on what’s required to conduct a clinical trial. I’m sure he could (and probably has) publish whitepapers on the subject. He certainly could create blog posts on the clinical trial process. (Thanks, Dr. Toth, for being an example)
Now think about your company and what you do. How do you currently communicate your messages? Realize you are the expert and start telling us about it.
Tags: blog, INpact, social media
16 Oct 09 Why Should You Care About Social Media?
Erik Deckers of ProBlog Service addressed today’s INpact meeting on the topic of social media. You know–Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Smaller Indiana, etc. Consider these numbers:
- 7335 – # of members on Smaller Indiana
- >300 Million – # of active users on Facebook
- ~6 Million – # of twitter users (data is from March 2009 and has likely increased significantly)
- 50 Million – # of people on LinkedIn
From personal experience, I can assure you there are people and groups interested in anything you can imagine. Also from personal experience, if you are not careful, these “tools” can suck you in and time will absolutely fly by.
Erik offered a few tips. I’ll suggest a few as well:
- Start small. Pick only a few social media “tools”. I recommend Smaller Indiana, Facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn. If that sounds like too many, go with Smaller Indiana and LinkedIn. The quality of connections on these two sites is pretty good and reputable.
- When “twittering”, limit your time to 30 minutes per day. Erik recommends spending 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon.
- Use tools such as TweetDeck, Twilert, and others to better navigate the twitter universe. TweetDeck allows you to create groups (such as “INpact People”). TweetDeck allows you to search for terms of interest. I have searches for “medical device”, “med device”, “pharma”, and others. Any time these terms are used anywhere on twitter, it shows up in my TweetDeck. Twilert allows you to do the same sort of thing but will email you tweets that included those terms. Why is this helpful? This information can be used for intelligence gathering, finding others to follow, and yes, even some business development.
- Try Google Alerts. Type in any keyword or phrase and receive an email (you determine frequency) with URL links any time the words are used. (Note: It takes some practice refining keywords and phrases to get the kind of results you are interested in. Use of quotes helps. For example, “medical device” will yield results where those words are used back to back, whereas medical device will yield results where “medical” and “device” are used in the same link.)
- Blog. No, we didn’t really talk much about this topic. But blogging should become part of your marketing communications. The least you should do is subscribe to blogs. Don’t know how? Read this and subscribe to INpact’s blog.
- Did you know all of the tools mentioned in this post are FREE?
If this still confuses you and are still asking yourself “So what?”, that’s understandable. If you are reluctant because the applications seem to change too often, realize this: social media is NOT going away any time soon. The above mentioned tools have been around for several years. Sure, others are likely to replace them. But the practice is here to stay–for now.
Of course, if you have questions, I’m sure Erik would love to help (erik@problogservice.com). You can always contact me too. Once I get Erik’s slides, I’ll upload them.
Tags: erik deckers, facebook, INpact, LinkedIn, problog service, smaller indiana, social media, twitter
13 Oct 09 Notes from September 18, 2009 Meeting
My apologies for not posting these notes sooner. I hope I capture the essence of our discussion. Too much time has passed and my memory isn’t what it used to be.
Is Now A Good Time For Medical Device Start-Ups?
- Medical device industry recession proof (at least more so than other industries)
- Still issues to addressing (e.g. the changing approach of FDA)
- Pharmaceutical industry presents significant challenges:
- clinical trials are lengthy and expensive (pharma)
- R&D slow (pharma)
- foreign competition (pharma)
- access to capital (pharma)
- Now is a good time to introduce new products
- A+ team with an A+ product will always find funding
- Opportunities if product / service reduces waste in healthcare
- Opportunities if product is able to generate revenue quickly
- Lots of very good resources looking for work due to current economy
- Must add value
- Value – Costs = Incentive to buy
- Value = Benefits – Costs
- Fuzzy front end VERY important
- Important to know when the product is good enough; don’t need the perfect product
- Will there be more efforts to market directly to consumers?
- Emerging trend in orthopedics
- Blood glucose meters have been doing this for a long time
- Regulatory implications must be dealt with
- True innovations will surface (”Brand Busters” book)
- Consumers buy based on emotions
- Does the product improve quality of life?
Tags: Indiana, INpact, medical device, start-up
