DEVELOPING A CULTURE OF INNOVATION

The lifeblood on the Med Tech industry is innovation. Innovation is a word that is tossed around often. It can make or break any organization. Often, we will hear organizations discussing their quest for “disruptive and innovative products”. Why is it then that some many organizations and individuals come up short when pursuing this goal?
 
Over the last couple of years Med Tech Gurus has had several guests discuss various aspects of this very topic. The information provided across this landscape of several guests has been dynamic and loaded with amazing nuggets of information. Collectively, I feel there is a playbook for developing a culture of innovation.
 
So exactly what is innovation? The first step is to define it.
Innovation- is commonly defined as the “ carrying out of a new combination that includes “the introduction of new goods, the opening of markets, the conquest of new sources of supply, and the carrying out of a new organization of any industry”.
Economists will tell you that innovation  is also the most important ingredient in an modern economy.
Sandy Rihana, Ph.D  Chair of the BioMedical Engineering Department at Holy Spirt University of Kaslik. Dr. Rihana appeared on Episode #71 of Med Tech Gurus.
Dr. Rihana explains the process of Innovation starting with the 3 phases of innovation.

• Identify
• Invent
• Implement

IDENTIFY
In this phase an organization needs to identify a need or needs in the marketplace. To address these needs the organization should start to work on concept generation and screening. Those involved should not be closed minded at this point. The brainstorming and idea generation is most important to develop the options.
Once an exhaustive list is generated that’s where the use of filters is important to further qualify these ideas. Filters such as regulatory requirements, Intellectual property issues or challenges, and reimbursement should be used. A particular industry may have additional filters, the key is to start to refine the list based on obvious “rule out” criteria.
IMPLEMENTATION

• Potential Commercialization Strategy Development
• Understanding the Intellectual Property
• Creating a credible reimbursement pathway
• Understanding of the engineering viability
• Resources

1. Are their different personnel needed?
2. What are the resources needed?
3. What is need for R & D?
4. Testing- pre-clinical, quality management, etc

• Developing a viable business model

1. Defining the competitive advantages of the proposed concept
2. Stakeholder strategies
3. What channels will this innovation be directed to?
4. What type of distribution model would be best?
5. Market strategies

Key Factors For Success in A Launch
In our discussion Dr. Rihana broke this down into the 5 Ps

• The Problem
• The Patient
• The Physician
• The Payor
• The Profit

Dr Rihana explains that all five of these buckets must be addressed to minimize the risk of failure. There are often 100 new ideas considered before there is a successful product that impacts the market. So paying attention to these 5 Ps will help mitigate the risk.
The Problem
Identifying the problem is always the catalyst to innovation. Once identified the goal is to focus on a positive, measurable, scalable solution.
The Patient
The patient should always be at the core of the value proposition. In Med Tech Gurus Episode #56 Mr. Peter Maag, the CEO at CareDx  discusses “always keeping a patient picture in mind”. Peter explains that an organization cannot lose sight of the fact that we are really here to serve the patient. To that end Peter discussed that CareDx has a patient come in and tell their story at each quarterly employee meeting.
The outcome of this is” that at the end of the patient presentation there is not a dry eye in the room” Peter explained. “these patient stories keep us focused on what our true mission is.”