Facilitating the Flow of Content within Medical Device Companies

The expense and the amount of work to manage content in research and marketing efforts can be intimidating. Partnering with a content technology company can help.

By: Peter Derycz

Financial pressures are rapidly rising within the medical device industry. As a result, manufacturers are on a tireless quest to reduce costs without compromising quality or innovation. This normally entails emphasizing receiving greater value from current suppliers or reducing total cost of ownership by switching legacy suppliers.
 
One subject that should be exposed to such scrutiny is content management. Obtaining and managing copyrighted content, such as scholarly journal articles, can be expensive. Content management includes the cost of locating, verifying, checking for compliance, formatting, updating, and translating or localizing device-related published content in the clinical and regulatory arenas. A separate challenge involves managing the published content that is used by sales and marketing teams to help promote the product. A content specialist service can assist with some of these efforts and help to streamline content management.  

Managing Copyrighted Content During the R&D Phase
During the testing phase for a product, a company’s researchers often search through millions of journal articles and other content that supports the scientific process. After this phase, clinical trials are carried out and the publication planning process accelerates, culminating in scholarly articles that will be submitted to peer-reviewed academic journals. Once published, they become a significant component of a company’s 510(k) premarket notification or premarket approval (PMA) submitted to FDA or other agencies if outside of the United States. If FDA approves the product, the articles take on a new role as the marketing efforts get underway and safety monitoring continues.
 
Of course, there are challenges associated with these uses of scientific articles, which are linked to issues of compliance and business process. For example, it is well known that a 510(k) or PMA documentation submitted to FDA can be lengthy, as it consists of reviews and copies of published studies of the device in question. Assembling, sending, and managing this mass of materials is a significant undertaking for any device manufacturer. It is crucial for a company’s bottom line that this task be completed inexpensively as possible and in a manner that avoids unnecessary duplication of materials or preparation errors that could lead to submission delays or rejections that ultimately affect shareholder value.
 
Preparing Published Content During the Marketing Phase
Once a medical device has received an approval notification from FDA for commercial use, its manufacturer’s marketing activities switch into high gear as they prepare to pursue a return on their investments. As with the R&D phase, facilitating the flow and management of copyrighted content poses a challenge, this time among the company’s legion of sales representatives. As made manifest by the rising importance of evidence-based promotions, there is no better weapon in a sales representative’s arsenal than research studies that can be effectively spotlighted for the healthcare professionals (HCPs) with whom they meet. Being able to bolster one’s claims for a new medical device with scientific research —in addition to the educational value of promotional materials prepared by a company’s marketing firm—is not only a good idea; it has become the principal method by which the company can distinguish itself from rivals with competing products. It has also become one of the few ethical methods remaining to communicate with HCPs in light of the highly restricted code of interactions adopted within recent years.

The arrival of the iPad as a marketing tool within the medical device industry poses a further motivation for companies to keep track of the key articles and other documents provided to their sales reps. Tablet computers enable a rep to transmit documents covering approved uses and the underlying science to an HCP. Timely access to a wide variety of these documents is a must while making sure that they are obtained at the lowest possible cost to the company.

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Source: Medical Device And Diagnostic Industry