Had one of those “Aha” moments the other day as a friend described a medical crisis he had just undergone. After some worrisome symptoms–shortness of breath and dizziness– he made an appointment to see a cardiologist for an angiogram. As so often happens in these cases, when the doctor saw significant blockage he went in, on the spot, to install a stent. “Routine procedure” according to the specialist. “No problems at all.”
Having been involved in all things “angio” for 25 years, I asked my friend some questions. “Did they implant more than one stent? Who was the maker of the stent? Was the stent drug coated or bare metal? Would my friend have to take Plavix? Were there dietary restrictions? Were there limitations on future physical activities?
His answer to all of these questions? “Don’t know.” Seriously. Okay, he had an appointment in a few days to go in and talk to his doctor—“I guess we’ll get into all those questions then.” I happened to have an actual size lucite-coated model of a heart and an actual stent to show him. He was dumbfounded at the size of the heart—it seemed so small—and at the size of the stent—it seemed so big. “Have you never seen anything like this?” I asked him. His answer was a predictable “No.”
My friend’s appointment and procedure took place in one of the world’s leading cardiology centers, not some small town operation just learning its way. And even there the whole nature of the process was top down, “Listen to Daddy” stuff. “I’m your doctor, I just did a critical medical procedure on you and you don’t need to know anything beyond that—at least until I can find some time on my calendar.”
The fact is, patients DO need to know what is happening when doctors initiate medical procedures. A major study of 33,000 patients showed that in the first half of 2011, patients with the lowest level of participation in their own care had worse clinical outcomes and 21% higher costs than patients with the highest level of participation. As the study concluded: “Patients’ ability and willingness to manage their health are crucial to maximizing outcomes and minimizing costs.[1] Bingo. Patient engagement = better outcomes.
But patient engagement isn’t going to happen if we rely solely on doctors and nurses and other health care providers. Medical providers simply don’t have the bandwidth needed to make patient engagement a priority nor to provide the engagement tools that will create empowered patients.
I think we are looking at an opportunity for medical device providers–an opportunity to build loyalty among their customers. Device providers do have the bandwidth to create engagement add-ons that fill the gap left by overworked doctors and nurses. Or if they don’t have the bandwidth today they are capable of adding it. A market spawned by hospitals’ inability to add staff is becoming a reality. Now is the time for device companies to address this critical need.
Patient input will lead to a much-needed patient narrative
Medical device companies do a lot of research among doctors to ensure their products and services meet their customers’ needs. That makes perfect sense. It takes thousands of man-hours and multiple millions of dollars to build new devices.
What I believe is called for next is the development of a patient narrative—how patients are responding to current products and the impact those products have had on their lives and their families’ lives. Determining the “hot spots”— the top issues among patients – will yield a level of product guidance and follow up we haven’t typically seen to date. Once that narrative is established, device manufacturers can play a leading role in patient engagement. The resultant patient/doctor loyalty will yield a host of key benefits, including but not limited to better clinical outcomes, improved patient satisfaction, and higher device sales.
