Like all sick care industries, The $379B MedTech indutsry is feeling the impact of the tsumani of sick care change. Veritical integraton is but one trend being driven by the need to come up with system solutions in a risk sharing environment, not just gadgets.

Here are some others:

1. Health economics driving adoption, not just safety and efficacy.
   
   
2. Staying private longer instead of taking a quicker exit.
   
   
3. Finding a CPT code to dock your product instead of having to create a new one.
   
   
4. Top line growth driving valuation.
   
   
5. Fighting BIG DEVICE; through high impact niche marketing.
   
   
6. Balancing a US v international sales and marketing strategy and staffing model.
   
   
7. Fixing companies that have stalled or failed to scale by more precise and strategic marketing, stopping the bleeding, and getting the right people on the bus sitting in the right seats who all want to go in the same direction.
   
   
8. Different business models whereby the company takes responsibility for driving traffic to end users and building repeat business instead of relying on the doctor to do it.
   
   
9. Building scale in large markets through direct and online marketing.
   
   
10. Using social media analytics to build market share in smaller markets.
    
    
11. Data driven value creation, although there are too few mergers or acquisitions based on data.
    
    
12. Partnering with consumers and data to grow to respond to new expectations.
    
    
13. R/D spending has stalled.
    
    
14. Technology companies have a lot more fire power than medtech companies.
    
    
15. Progress will be driven by personalization.

All of this effort seems focused on better quality at lower cost and a better patient experience. Unfortunately, costs keep escalating and the doctor experience is getting worse. There is still a lot of work to do to get things right.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs.