Overview
Medical capital equipment providers are facing a unique set of opportunities and challenges, including the following:
- Large-scale partnerships with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are becoming more frequent as providers’ senior administrators increasingly focus on cost-saving arrangements with medical equipment OEMs, particularly from large health systems seeking to reduce overhead costs. Large OEMs such as Philips and GE have secured long-term partnerships worth tens (if not hundreds) of millions of dollars; these types of deals are expected to proliferate further.
- Connectivity of devices across the continuum of care is being increasingly emphasized as more patients are treated by medical equipment devices in non-acute settings; for example, infusion pump systems are more commonly being used to connect and track data across care sites as patients move from inpatient to outpatient settings.
- Data analytics and related capabilities are in increasing demand from medical equipment OEMs, as providers and payers alike are seeking more and more to leverage and utilize data gathered by their medical equipment to help provide and improve care for patients.
- Tiered and innovative service models are being utilized by medical equipment players, including managed equipment services to help hospitals navigate large, upfront capital expenses as well as differentiate from other manufacturers. Additionally, the remote servicing of equipment is on the rise, as is an increased focus on uptime and service contracts to help drive customer stickiness and address unmet needs.
At L.E.K., we help companies focused on medical equipment develop practical strategies to address these issues and win in a dynamic global healthcare market.
How we help
Small, midsize and large multinational medical equipment companies routinely engage us to help with:
- Segmentation and targeting: We help medical equipment providers determine which key accounts they should focus their sales and marketing efforts on, and how to optimize resource deployment to serve each unique segment of the market.
- Market opportunity evaluation: We help our medical equipment clients expand their products and services into new settings of care, market segments and international geographies. This includes both acute and non-acute settings (e.g., hospital outpatient departments, skilled nursing facilities and long-term acute care hospitals), mature as well as emerging markets, and both large and small medical capital equipment devices.
- Service and solution expansion: We work closely with our clients to ideate, develop and execute innovative solutions and services that help transform our clients into solution providers to drive increased customer stickiness and satisfaction relative to competitors. We provide not only equipment management solutions but also innovative data analytics platforms and solutions that help customers leverage their equipment to better deliver care.
- Value articulation and pricing strategy: We help medical equipment clients evaluate and shape gain-sharing models and value-based arrangements that providers are increasingly exploring as alternatives to standard equipment and service-based payment models.
- Commercial model optimization: We help equipment providers assess how to optimize elements of their commercial models, including how to better align sales objectives, how to approach account management and commercial capability resourcing, how to interact with group purchasing organization (GPOs)s, and how to develop marketing and messaging approaches to enhance sales and top-line growth.
Examples of our work
We have helped many companies in the medical equipment space recalibrate their product strategy or business model to drive profitable growth and outsized returns.
- Technical support service optimization: A leading medical capital equipment player asked L.E.K. how it could improve its technical support services and related solution offerings. We interviewed and surveyed customers to understand unmet needs and elements of the client’s service that could be improved. Over a five-to-six-month period, we worked closely with the management team to develop an optimal approach to enhancing the company’s technical support services and related support solutions, including how to tier and structure service contracts.
- Portfolio strategy: An infusion pump provider asked L.E.K. to develop a plan for using its technology to enter into the non-acute and ambulatory segments and to connect across care settings. We helped segment potential customers and designed core use cases, uncovering new market opportunities. Our strategy also recommended several additional use cases and segments to further target within the acute setting, leading to further value accretion and market validation.
- Market opportunity assessment: L.E.K. conducted a detailed market opportunity assessment for an innovative intra-operative imaging technology, including an analysis of which markets should be prioritized and how commercial resourcing should be allocated to best penetrate key target accounts. The client was ultimately able to significantly expand its existing revenue based on our recommended approach and analysis of the market opportunity.
- Growth strategy: A surgical robotics player asked L.E.K. to help evaluate additional growth opportunities, including a European go-to-market strategy. We conducted a robust market assessment and leveraged extensive research to determine how the client could best enter into ex-U.S. markets to develop a roadmap for future growth. The client is currently utilizing these recommendations and is adding accretive growth to its existing base of business.
