THE KEY TO A GREAT MEDICAL PRODUCT
🗝 THE KEY TO A GREAT MEDICAL PRODUCT is simply making patients feel better.
This might seem obvious, but mostly absent in traditional non-acute medical devices.
The competitive advantage and challenge of meeting functional requirements no longer exists. It’s easy to make things that do things.
The opportunity now is creating products that make patients feel better. No other industry is plagued with a default user feeling of dread as medicine , it’s built in. It’s also stacked with the greatest variety of users/customers. A stakeholder chain including but not limited to patients, doctors, hospital admins, nurses, payers, and family members; each with different priorities and considerations. But the key and common denominator to impact is simply making patients feel better. A holistic approach to medical device product development that recognizes and prioritizes the #patientexperience to deliver maximum value.
I relate this approach to the “ 10x thinking ” that’s common in Consumer Tech innovation and made popular by Google. Tech(code, data, connectivity, etc.) is the leverage that can translate 10x thinking to 10x doing. It’s what allows bold product teams to iterate quickly and land solutions that can distribute valuable user experiences at scale through data, algorithms and design. If you distill down the most successful tech products, you’ll see that what they really do is provide their users with a valuable feeling beyond just functionality.
Although medical devices don't have the same development agility as consumer tech because of the quality and regulatory requirements necessary to mitigate risks, the value and opportunity of putting user experience first and leveraging tech exists! A great example that I’ve come across recently is NuvoAir’s product line. Centered around improving the care of patients suffering from respiratory conditions, their devices feature thoughtful design backed by tech to provide solid functional performance while dramatically improving the patient’s experience as a whole. Their value proposition goes one step further by using data collection to elucidate pain points and shortcomings of standard respiratory care. This kind of user data can then be used to objectively support and define future product features and care improvements.
Marc Cotterill created an awesome video about his experience living with chronic respiratory disease and the impact NuvoAir has made. The device not only provides patients like him with the necessary FEV1 clinical value but most importantly it empowers them to regain control. Through its thoughtful design, it’s able to remove the burdens of traditional care and establish a trust that the product and the people behind it really just want to make them feel better. That’s the key, and perhaps, we’re overthinking the situation.
Image by charles barsotti