Do you know what your end users truly value in the products you offer?
Knowing how your products are received by the professionals who recommend them and the patient-consumers who use them is essential. Equally important is knowing the answers to other questions; What are people’s needs? What could be done better? How could our products be improved? There’s a catch though in accessing this sort of data through the usual market channels or small paid panels of paid experts. Eliminating or reducing bias in the process of professional or end-user opinion collection is critical. Balan’s network of Physicians, Medical Professionals and Patients provides unbiased and statistically valid information derived from their experienced opinions to your questions or concepts. We don’t buy our network member’s opinions though we do reward participation by making donations to a range of charitable organizations on their behalf. The Balan Medical Professional Network consists of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, lab technicians, veterinarians, and many others—who provide real time responses to a range of questions.
Rapid Response Research: Used for simple queries that require a fast response – usually within 48 hours—or a small sample size. Generally a pilot question or two to test the “direction of the wind”. Examples include:
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Asking five neurologists about the merits of a new product for patients with Parkinson’s Disease
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Asking six Internists about the statistical requirements of preclinical trial results required before they would recommend use of an adjunctive therapy for patients with type II diabetes.
Multi-channel Research: Taps into multiple data sources and reports out findings. Sources of information may include the clinical practice and research literature, patent search, and Physician, Medical Professional and/or Patient and Consumer Networks. Examples include:
Delphi Networking: Balan’s Medical Professional Network consists of a growing number of member doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, lab technicians, and many others—from all therapeutic areas providing real time responses to a range of questions. This capability brings the end user or referring medical professional to the front of the new product decision process. As a result, we can help eliminate or reduce the need to rework product design and inform other areas of the marketing mix.
Voice of the Professional Customer: Traditionally, marketing had the responsibility to define customer needs and product requirements. This had the effect of isolating engineering from end users and caused product development to occur in a vacuum. By bringing the voice of the end user to the front end of design and development process, product development happens in a more informed way, balancing need with capability ultimately contributing to the success of the product. In health care, the end user may be the physician, either through direct use or through referral, the patient or any of the many professionals involved in the distributed health care system. Efficiently and effectively tapping into these voices gives product manufacturers the added information needed to better develop products. It also creates market pull, where customers eagerly anticipate market launch of desired products.
We Can Enhance the Technology, but Should We?
In this case the Balan client was the Technology Transfer Office of a prestigious university. One of the faculty members had an idea to enhance the information gathered from a diagnostic device. The question from the TTO was “Is this data clinically useful, and if so, will physicians and healthcare systems be willing to pay the additional amount for the enhanced device?” The Balan Physician Network of cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons and electrophysiologists was queried. It was learned that 5 years ago the enhancement would have been useful but current practice, based on existing diagnostic options, which didn’t exist 5 years ago, left the current enhancement without substantial clinical improvement. This is information was given to our client with the result that internal university resources were deployed where greater commercial success was likely.