The power of face-to-face: Reaching time-poor clinicians to further innovation
The European medtech industry is primed for exponential growth; its medical device market has grown on average by 4.4% per year for the past 9 years*, and its medical technology market is estimated to make up to 27% of the world market, sitting just behind the US**. This opportunity for growth has been recognised by manufacturers, developers, engineers and clinicians across the region, looking to finetune evermore advanced equipment to improve care and efficiencies in healthcare systems across the continent.
Within the UK specifically, the NHS Long Term Plan has called for digitally-enabled care, showing clear appetite from within healthcare systems to embrace technology and innovation to reshape clinical practice and process for patient benefit.
New technologies and devices in the medtech market are paving the way to tackle some of healthcare’s biggest challenges, whether addressing unmet areas of clinical need or improving treatment efficiencies. We’re edging ever closer to enabling a truly connected healthcare system through the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), with over 3.7 million devices which are in use by the public and informing healthcare decisions.
As more and more services and products are brought to market, it can be a challenge for end-users to keep up-to-date with the latest tech or keep abreast of which developments could transform their provision of care. There’s the question of trust too – and often the best way to build this is to get hands-on experience of products, to show people the potential behind new innovations.
Yet, with clinicians and key healthcare decision makers increasingly time-poor and hospital administration resources under greater pressure, the opportunity to engage with these audiences to showcase the benefits of the latest technology, devices or systems is proving more challenging.
Though medical expos and conferences provide a great opportunity for audiences to get to grips with new products, time-pressures mean they have less and less time to travel to out-of-town – sometimes even out-of-country – events. How can the medtech industry harness the power of literally delivering innovation to decision makers’ doorsteps and the real value of face-to-face interaction?
Getting face-to-face
Of course, there is value in using medical expos and exhibitions as a tool to get face-to-face with your target customers. They attract a hyper-engaged audience of people who have chosen to be there. It allows visitors to get to grips with showcased products and technologies. You can set up a stand and welcome a steady stream of people from various hospitals, clinics and organisations.
Yet exhibitions are not the most flexible way to engage with time-poor clinicians. There’s a battle for visibility amongst competing exhibitors, and the limited space can prove a challenge for companies demonstrating large, unwieldy equipment or wishing to create a truly immersive experience.
On the road again
To facilitate these increasingly important personal interactions, it is hugely beneficial to bring your products, services and technologies directly to the doorstep. It reduces time investment for visitors, and allows a greater deal of flexibility and creativity as compared to a standard expo stand. Creating powerful live experiences, which can be hosted at any location, can be used to demo products and services face-to-face with new customers, in new international markets.
Getting face-to-face with your target audience allows them to engage with you and your innovations like no other channel.
Take global life science and analytical technology developer Sciex. The company harnessed the power of immersion with a multi-truck roadshow tour that plunged visitors into the company’s history and included a mobile laboratory to showcase its fully-function mass spectrometry equipment. The format of the campaign enabled Sciex’s experts to not only run through demos and showcase samples, but provided scientists and lab personnel with face-to-face advice on the issues that mattered most to visitors onboard. It captured immediate interest and cemented Sciex as an industry leader amongst new audiences.
Immersive experiences can also build trust in the effectiveness and potential of increasingly complex technologies. Imagine replicating a hospital ward which showed in real time the IoMT ecosystem – a connected infrastructure of devices and services, healthcare of the future. It would truly bring the system to life, and build trust with not just healthcare professionals, but the public too.
Furthering innovation
Harnessing the power of face-to-face interaction can have a clear and demonstrable positive impact for both medtech companies and their customers. To bring your services directly to decision makers and healthcare professionals not only prioritises their time, but allows for greater hands-on experience and the chance to build trust in new technologies.
With the medtech market growing at pace, there’s promise for a future where developers can closely collaborate with healthcare experts to push forward innovation, for the benefit of patients and clinicians alike. New medtech developments could indeed address some of the immense pressures facing healthcare systems – in spite of these, flexible tours can help further product implementation and give overstretched decision makers the gift of time.
