DECEMBER - 202019CXO insightsI had a professor in my MBA program once tell me that all innovation is derived from a pain point. Structural heart therapies have revolutionized the way we approach patients today. The continued advances in cardiovascular imaging and device technology have made the unthinkable our new reality. Patients who were previously considered at elevated risk for an open surgical procedure now have minimally invasive transcatheter options available to them. Other potentially life-altering transcatheter therapies involving intra-cardiac shunts or left atrial appendage closure have benefited many thousands by reducing morbidity.So, what's the big problem? With any new technology or procedure, there is an adoption growth curve that consists of the innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. Professor Dr. Geoffrey Moore, an organizational theorist, has suggested a chasm between the early adopters and the remaining majority, in essence, turning a typical bell curve into an S curve. It was further explained that each segment, as in the case of medicine, needs its own "marketing" or outreach strategy. What that means to us is that there is a large population of patients with whom we can help, but are not afforded the opportunity due to a lack of awareness. Clinical trial enrollment often lags behind expected completion times secondary to lower than expected patient enrollment. Much of the time, patients would be open to considering a clinical trial if their doctor approached them about it. Commercially available therapies also suffer from low adoption rates after FDA approval for similar reasons.Medical technology companies utilize many resources to build awareness of these therapies in referring communities and patients alike. The most likely reason to explain the lower than expected adoption rates centers around one primary concept: education & awareness.Several approaches have been applied in hopes of improving awareness among the referring community. Within the medical technology industry, therapy awareness representatives, online education tools, social media campaigns, and even television commercials are utilized. Health care systems and practices also struggle with awareness in engaging their referring network. Provider education events (lunches, dinners, Grand Rounds), paper marketing collateral, social media outlets, and search engine optimization techniques are explored with variable success. Health systems have an additional challenge in that, as the network grows, providers begin to lose touch with one another, and by proxy, the capabilities offered Douglas Gregory, RN, MBA, BSN, NEA-BC, CCRN-K, FACHEKevin Wall, MBA, BSN, RN, EMTAmar Patel, MD, FACC, FSCAI, Wellstar Health SystemByBOLSTERING THE STRUCTURAL HEART PARADIGM
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