Posted by James Rudolph on Fri, Jul 09, 2010
The future perfect
By the time you arrive, I will have gone to the hospital.
This sentence is an example of the verb tense the future perfect. The unnerving reality of the future perfect is that it describes two or more independent variable actions that may occur in the future - always with a level of uncertainty. Naturally, we respond to the future perfect with mixed emotions: anxiety, skepticism, fear, perhaps a little excitement. It’s no surprise, then, that we respond to the idea of ethnofuturism (or, if you prefer, Futures Thinking) in much the same way. Ethnofuturism, like the future perfect, is research for the future, and understanding the future is never a perfect science.
Ethnofuturism
Originally, ethnofuturism was a term invented by Estonian authors and artists to describe their intentions to blend old, culturally significant forms with modern technologies made available by their recent sociopolitical liberation. Ethnofuturism, as it’s used today, capitalizes on this idea of blending the old with the new, the locally relevant with the globally significant, to enable a more ideal future. Simply put, it’s ethnography for the future. More specifically, it’s an emerging trend of research strategies aimed at using these cultural and behavioral insights to inform business strategies, product innovations, and service applications.
Applications
The consumer and fashion industries have understood the value of ethnofuturist research techniques for many years (see Jan Chipchase’s aptly named blog The Future Perfect which inspired my inquiry into the subject), employing strategists, technologists, trend forecasters, ethnographers, and other multi-disciplinary futurists to understand how people may behave in five, ten, and fifteen-plus years from now. See, for example, Trendwatching.com. The focus of ethnofuturism is on understanding possible shifts in behavior, preference, and knowledge in order to realize a better future.
Professionals working in this area take advantage of traditional research techniques, such as cultural ethnography, marketing research, and data analysis, and blend them with emerging strategies, such as scenario casting, rapid ethnography, and futures thinking, to inform possible outcomes. Venessa Miemis observes “It's not predicting the future, but rather taking a structured approach to understanding the potential impacts of today's decisions and actions” (see her article on Futures Thinking). For a more comprehensive discussion of emerging research strategies, see Design Research: Methods and Perspectives, edited by Brenda Laurel. The objective is to understand predictable behavioral patterns so that new products and services can accommodate and respond in appropriate, valuable, and meaningful ways. Three prominent factors make ethnofuturist techniques relevant for medical product development: increasing human mobility, globalization, and the maturation of advanced medical technologies such as robotics.
Mobility and Globalization
The rapid growth of human mobility, both physical and digital, has led to an increasingly global level of interaction. People respond to other cultural behaviors in observable ways, often co-opting them for their own. The interactions that occur provide expert researchers insight into people’s likely near future expectations, even if they are not adequately met today. This cross pollination of ideas and behaviors occurs in everyday consumer environments, but it occurs just as readily in hospitals and other healthcare environments. Formally, ideas are exchanged through international initiatives such as Doctor’s Without Borders, but the exchange happens much more rapidly and with far more lasting implications through informal, everyday exchanges. The researcher’s job is to understand these behaviors in order to identify potential future needs and expectations.
Technology
Forecasting will become more important in the medical industry as advanced technologies become more ubiquitous. While current applications take advantage of the more technical strengths of robotics, such as precision, repetition, and reliability (see MAKO Surgical’s partial knee resurfacing), future applications will need to incorporate intelligent systems that can respond appropriately to diverse situations, such as medical emergencies. As technologies (and eventually, markets) mature, new applications will certainly arise. Research professionals will be paramount to answering difficult questions: How can these technologies be used to assist our aging population? What level of artificial intelligence is appropriate in home health care settings? What services should these technologies provide, and which applications will be most readily accepted by consumers? Clearly, many research strategies already exist for probing these types of questions, and more will undoubtedly be developed to improve their effectiveness and efficiency.
Medical Future Perfect
Many of the same research strategies employed by futurists today will play a significant role in the future of user research in medical product development. The future of health care is too important and too near for it not to. Jamais Cascio provides a practical overview for how research professionals can begin thinking about likely medical scenarios. His process outlines four key activities: Asking the Question; Scanning the World; Mapping the Possibilities; and Asking the Next Question. Research strategies that allow us to ask pertinent questions, identify telling challenges, and explore “possible, probable and preferable” solutions provide valuable insight to our medical future. These tools will become increasingly relevant in medical and home health care industries as these markets continue to mature and turn to more intelligent technological solutions as a strategic competitive advantage.
Posted by Tristan Sedgwick on Mon, Mar 15, 2010
Achieving ISO certification is a tedious, time consuming, often difficult and complex process BUT there are a multitude of reasons why you're doing it.
Farm has been going through the lengthy process and although we are not "required" to be ISO certified since we are a medical product development consultancy, we know that our business can benefit dramatically by obtaining ISO certification and so can our clients.
If you're in the process of becoming ISO 13485 certified and you're starting to rip your hair out - keep the following in mind...
- You are doing this because you want to offer your clients a high level of customer satisfaction. A certified quality system establishes your company's credibility and commitment to quality, helping you earn your client's trust and confidence.
- You want to comply with statutory and regulatory requirements to assure clients that you are committed to developing products that are safe and effective.
- You want to unlock doors that were previously closed since many medical device companies won't even speak to a development company that is not certified.
- You want to experience financial growth by gaining access to a larger market share that operates in a highly regulated medical sector.
- You want to motivate your staff and increase productivity. This is achieved through proper training, a documented, straightforward communication of the quality management system and evaluation process in order to create a work environment that embraces accountability.
- You realize the importance of mitigating risks in all stages of the product development process in order to detect and prevent errors in all stages of a product's lifecycle.
- You want the ability to identify when processes are obsolete or inefficient so you can reassess and correct them.
The process of achieving ISO 13485 certification shouldn't be feared, it should be embraced. It's a chance for a company to create a quality management system that works for them, not against them. It's an opportunity to develop a system that will offer a competitive advantage and help your business be the best that it can be.
If you reach your goal in obtaining ISO certification and are thanking your lucky stars that it's finally over - you're missing the point! Certification and the process in and of itself NEVER ends. Your quality system must continue to be audited and improved, tracked and reviewed, trained and understood by everyone in your business. It's not a course you've completed and will soon forget but instead a promise you've made to your business, employees, clients, suppliers and industry liaisons. If you want to be successful as a business, you must realize there is always room for performance improvement and by changing your perception you will not just raise the bar but go above it.
Posted by Matt Harkins on Mon, Mar 01, 2010
Due to the buzz surrounding social media, it seems people have shifted their focus away from traditional networking events. While social media and online networking provide added value, you cannot abandon the traditional networking events that foster growth, collaboration, and innovation in the medical device community. I'm a business development manager here at Farm and can testify to the benefits received from attending medical device networking events. Networking has not only contributed directly to top-line growth by bringing in new projects and prospects, it has also helped us build brand recognition as a leader in medical product development.
The New England region has a number of valuable medical device specialty interest groups that are great venues for networking with industry professionals and promoting your services to prospects. It would be overwhelming to attend them all, so it is important to identify the meetings where you can add the most value and gain access to the right group of prospects. Here are some groups in the medical device industry that I have found to be valuable:
Medical Development Group (MDG)
MDG holds networking meetings in Waltham, MA on the first Wednesday of each month. MDG combines networking meetings with a forum session where industry experts are brought together to discuss different topics of interest in the medical device industry. Past topics have included healthcare reform and its affect on medical technology usage, the emergence of drug delivery and combination products, future trends in women's health products, trends in medical devices, and why devices fail and how to prevent it from happening. Farm has been an MDG sponsor for five years now. We have gained excellent visibility and brand recognition due to our affiliation with its networking sessions and forum meetings.
MassMEDIC
MassMEDIC provides a number of different networking opportunities throughout the year. In addition to its annual Investors Conference in the fall, MassMEDIC hosts smaller networking sessions with a range of relevant topics from the Massachusetts Gift Ban Law to best practices in the 510K process. MassMEDIC has also started MedTechIGNITE to help foster medical device companies through their early stages of conceptualization, formation, and product development. MedTechIGNITE offers its own networking sessions geared toward medical device startups and entrepreneurs seeking advice in Massachusetts.
Merrimack Valley Venture Forum (MVVF)
MVVF provides a variety of valuable events for the technology and scientific industries. It is important to identify the meetings that fit with your networking needs. The MVVF provides multiple sessions for medical device startups to pitch their business plans to an audience of potential investors, service providers, and business partners. In the past these events have attracted a number of startups from the orthopedics, urology, women's health, cardiology, and biotech markets.
Tradeshows
In addition to networking groups, tradeshows offer another great venue for networking with industry professionals. Throughout the year Farm exhibits at a number of tradeshows that are geared specifically to the medical device design and manufacturing community. We recently exhibited at MD&M West in Anaheim, CA. It was our first time exhibiting on the west coast and we were overwhelmed by the positive response we received. In addition to meeting new prospects in need of development services, we were able to reconnect with a number of former colleagues. Exhibiting at the show served as a powerful reminder of how important it is to get out and promote our services to our target audience.
It is important to remember that you won't walk away from every networking event with an opportunity. Networking is a cumulative effort where persistence pays off. You'll benefit from being a regular attendee and finding additional ways to get involved. Establishing more visibility in your industry will help you build brand recognition and increase the chance that your prospects will know of you when you reach out to them.
Posted by Marc Dubreuil on Wed, Jan 06, 2010
For those of us who make our living in the world of medical product development, the future seems very uncertain based on current economic and political trends.
The struggling economy is forcing venture capitalists (VCs) to find and fund products and opportunities that are less risky and farther down the development and commercialization path. VCs are moving away from early-stage medical devices to later stage and energy investments, where returns may be lower but the exit is visible and predictable.
The FDA is undergoing a culture shift and is trying to get a better handle on the appropriate level of clinical data to support safety and efficacy. Recent news suggests that the 510k process will remain largely unchanged; but anyone who's been waiting on 510k decisions knows that it has become a much more arduous process over the last 18 months.
And what effect will the pending Health Care reform have on the ability of the medical device industry to innovate and introduce new products? In a well researched, documented, and written book by T.R. Reid, titled The Healing of America, the subject takes a page from the experiences in Japan. Japan uses a single national fee schedule that sets fixed prices for all procedures. For example, an MRI in the US costs $1,000 to $1,400. The fixed price for an MRI in Japan is $105. So the Japanese service providers turned to the MRI manufacturers and demanded lower cost equipment. The manufacturers responded with machines with more advanced features that cost about one-tenth the cost of US units. Most of the product innovation in Japan comes from small hospitals associated with large medical schools while medical companies are focused on cost out.
As we start to move more plan participants to public options, will Medicare and Medicaid face the same regulated price limitations? Will the development of new life-saving Health Care technologies be strangled by the system? Will our new product development be driven by cost and not effectiveness? Time will tell.