Archive for the ‘medical device technology’ Category

Flickr photo by SapientNitro Idea Engineers

Back in October 2011 I came across coverage of Malcolm Gladwell’s keynote address at “Idea Engineer Exchange” in New York.

Gladwell, a New York Times best-selling author, essentially said that there are three stages of innovation – inventor, implementer and tweaker – and that the tweaker is often best suited to capitalize on an invention.

As a marketing content writer for medical technology companies, this got me thinking about how Gladwell’s ideas might apply to MedTech.

So, I posted the following question on a few different medical technology-related LinkedIn groups that I’m a part of.

“From a medical technology perspective, what do you think
about the notion that “it is better to innovate than invent …?”

I also included a link to the short article I read about Gladwell’s thoughts.

While I expected to get a handful of comments back, I had no idea what a firestorm this topic would set off! Read the rest of this entry »

In preparation for the American Association of Neurological Surgeons Annual Meeting (aka, AANS, but was founded in 1931 as the Harvey Cushing Society) next week, I decided to brush-up on my brain and neurosurgery factoids–and, of course, share them with you.

• The brain has been a mystery since time immemorial. Early philosophers were divided as to whether the seat of the soul lies in the brain or heart. Aristotle favored the heart, thinking that the function of the brain was merely to cool the blood. Hippocrates, the “father of medicine”, came down strongly in favor of the brain.

• In the United States, the 1990s were officially designated as the “Decade of the Brain” to commemorate advances made in brain research.

• The brain consumes up to twenty percent of the energy used by the human body, more than any other organ.

• Although the human brain represents only 2% of the body weight, it receives 15% of the cardiac output, 20% of total body oxygen consumption, and 25% of total body glucose utilization.

• According to Wikipedia, the Hieroglyphic for the word “brain” (c.1700 BC) looks like this: Read the rest of this entry »

In a recent article, MD&DI spoke with medical device designer and biomedical-engineering professor at the University of Cincinnati, Mary Beth Privitera.

In the interview, she states that:

Almost all medical device companies rely on the physician to be a key opinion leader and to guide them throughout the process.”

This would seem to make perfect sense, since the doctor would be the one actually using the device. But what about the business aspect of procuring the device?

A design team, in tandem with a physician, may create an innovative device that solves many problems for both the physician and patient. But, as we know from September’s AdvaMed and the recent Ernst and Young “2011 Pulse of the Industry Report”, Read the rest of this entry »

I just got back from the AdvaMed 2011 convention in Washington, DC and am even more impressed with the MedTech industry than before (if that’s possible)!

There were exhibitors from  an array of leading medical device companies and really insightful panel sessions. Fortunately, MD&DI had some wonderful people on the ground blogging about what was happening and what MedTech leaders had to say about the state and future of the industry.

You can check them all out on www.mddionline.com, but here are the direct links to some of the blog posts: Read the rest of this entry »

Flickr photo by Brett L.

If you didn’t get into the prospect’s mind first,” writes Ries and Trout, “don’t give up hope. Find a new category you can be first in. It’s not as difficult as you might think.”

And here you have author’s Al Ries and Jack Trout’s “immutable” marketing law number two: The Law of the Category – If you can’t be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in.

This section of The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing gives many different examples of this law in action: Read the rest of this entry »