Value Signposts in MedTech Development: An Experience from the Field

Medical technology (MedTech) is traditionally seen as enabling the delivery of health in a better, innovative fashion. For example, the Da Vinci robot enables robotic surgeries, and Ardian enables surgical treatment of refractory hypertension. More recently, there has been a profound shift in emphasis on technologies that can provide cost-saving values to the payers. To this end, value signposts are fundamental in identifying and addressing clinical needs on a global scale. These value signposts include the potential to keep patients out of the hospital, change location of care to less expensive venues, and diagnose a condition earlier to reduce complications and/or slow disease progression. These presentations will review the key value signposts for translating health science technology and apply them to two case studies. Case 1: Even with readily available Emergency Medical Service and well equipped tertiary medical centres dotted across Singapore, the rate of patients with ischemic stroke receiving thrombolysis is low at 6.3%. Patients missing the window for thrombolysis have worse clinical outcome and require expensive rehabilitation. Our Singapore Stanford Biodesign team developed an app to identify the three most common symptoms of stroke and automatically activate medical response. Case 2: Our team of physicians from Singapore and the United States identified a scarcity of nasoendoscope in Vietnam. Only 45% of central and regional hospitals have nasoendoscopes whereas no community or district hospitals have such capacity. The team developed an affordable, LED-based, cord-free, AAA-battery-powered nasoendoscope system with data acquisition and transmission circuitry. This device can potentially add significant value to the delivery of ENT care in Vietnam and beyond. The objective is to demonstrate how innovations with strong focus on reducing the costs to healthcare systems have global appeal.