Often, the role of marketing is misunderstood in the world of medical device manufacturing. While many engineering-centric manufacturers feel that their role is to deliver cutting edge technology, often the actual users of the device are overlooked. In most GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) environments, VOC (voice of the customer) data is treated as a commodity, which in fact it is. Manufacturers spend good money on marketing departments many times for the wrong reasons. Properly executed peer review and VOC polling can yield excellent results in terms of product acceptance.Manufacturers that rely too heavily on engineering for product development often find themselves losing market share as they end up with lesser, me-too types of devices.
Case in point is the start up technology company that created an exciting new sensor technology, and in the pursuit of releasing a product decided to showcase the technology on a PC based electrocardiograph. This certainly sped up the design cycle of the product, but ended up with a very large device with a laser printer as an output device. Any actual user would have quickly pointed out that that the resultant size of the contraption was too unwieldy to be used in the real world.
This reminds me of a situation many years ago when the VP of our marketing department was trying to consider where to put the keyboard on a defibrillator. This man was very intelligent, a mathematician, but had spent no real time in a clinical environment. The reality was that there was no reason to put a keyboard on a defibrillator for a variety of reasons. Number one, is that no one had time to enter patient data in a code situation. Number two is that defibs need to have minimum buttons by design to be user friendly.
Then there was the time that I was in the ER during a code and the resident on call was a former nurse who got on of the paddles upside down. She ultimately got it right side up and was able to defibrillate. The patient didnt make it, although the extra minute probably didnt make a difference, but it did make a statement with regard to coolness under pressure, experience, as well as appropriate product design. There are some excellent texts in the marketplace regarding the role of marketing in manufacturing. While the medical engineering environment is different with regard to the fact that often lead design engineers see themselves as the innovators who are solving problems, without the collective experience of the marketplace vis-a-vis the marketing department, they may find themselves trying to market an innovative idea without the appropriate vehicle.
This reminds me of a situation many years ago when the VP of our marketing department was trying to consider where to put the keyboard on a defibrillator. This man was very intelligent, a mathematician, but had spent no real time in a clinical environment. The reality was that there was no reason to put a keyboard on a defibrillator for a variety of reasons. Number one, is that no one had time to enter patient data in a code situation. Number two is that defibs need to have minimum buttons by design to be user friendly.
Then there was the time that I was in the ER during a code and the resident on call was a former nurse who got on of the paddles upside down. She ultimately got it right side up and was able to defibrillate. The patient didnt make it, although the extra minute probably didnt make a difference, but it did make a statement with regard to coolness under pressure, experience, as well as appropriate product design. There are some excellent texts in the marketplace regarding the role of marketing in manufacturing. While the medical engineering environment is different with regard to the fact that often lead design engineers see themselves as the innovators who are solving problems, without the collective experience of the marketplace vis-a-vis the marketing department, they may find themselves trying to market an innovative idea without the appropriate vehicle.
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