Healthcare insiders know it’s not enough to have a great medical solution – getting that solution into healthcare systems and organizations requires careful planning and execution. As someone who has worked on both sides of healthcare innovation, Dr. Jon Belsher understands these challenges firsthand.”Going to market cannot be an afterthought or left to chance,” Dr. Jon states plainly. Having spent the first third of his 30-year career as a practicing physician before moving into building companies and executive roles, he’s seen many healthcare solutions succeed and fail over the years. His experiences at Mayo Clinic, in the emergency room and ICU, as a military flight surgeon, and even providing care for the homeless for a period of time have shaped his understanding of what works and what importantly doesn’t.
Building Clinical Validation
For Dr. Jon, the starting point is clear. “Clinical validation is critical – establishing the clinical efficacy and use case of the product or solution is paramount,” he emphasizes. This means importantly involving healthcare clinicians, including doctors and nurses, early in development, something he’s found many early-stage medtech and healthtech companies skim over or simply overlook. The consequences of missing or mishandling this step can be consequential. “Without clinical input and important insights and feedback, it can be very challenging for healthtech and medtech solutions to ultimately be successful,” Dr. Jon explains. “It’s important to have people who are doing the bedside work every day give the company a sense of whether something’s going to work or have the intended effect or not. The feedback can lead to important iterative changes that mean ultimate success.”
When evaluating healthcare technologies, Dr. Jon looks beyond traditional financial metrics. “Generally, when we talk about return on investment or ROI, many quickly think of money and economic return,” he notes. But in healthcare, the ROI equation is more complex. He breaks it down into three essential components: “It must be effective at bedside, relatively easy to use and deploy, and have economic value – meaning at minimum it pays for itself and is going to be attractive to hospitals and healthcare systems as well as insurers.” Miss any of these marks, and even seemingly promising technologies can struggle to gain attention and traction.
Tailoring Communication for Stakeholders
A common misstep that Dr. Jon sees is early-stage medtech and healthtech companies using the same pitch in the same way for everyone. “One size doesn’t fit all,” he states. “When you get in front of different stakeholders, your messaging needs to be tailored differently while maintaining the overall value of the product or solution.”
He illustrates this with some examples for different parties or stakeholders:
- “The patient will be thinking about the impact on their care and the potential ease of use of the device.”
- “The physician will be thinking about whether it’s going to impact outcomes or their success with patients.”
- “Healthcare system executives are going to be thinking about the economic return and how it’s going to be importantly paid for or reimbursed.”
- “Regulatory bodies like the FDA are going to be thinking, is it safe? Have we seen something like it before that we can group into a corresponding category. How much data do we need to feel comfortable green lighting it.”
Lessons from the Front Lines
Drawing from his time building healthcare companies and later evaluating solutions as a physician executive, Dr. Jon emphasizes the importance of simplification. “Products and solutions with go-to-market strategies centered around efficiency and simplification of complex workflows – those companies will gain the most attention.” Not every solution succeeds on the first try, however. It’s the reality of the highly competitive landscape. “I have very candid and sometimes hard conversations at times,” Dr. Jon acknowledges. “An MVP (minimum viable product) may require some not insignificant adjustment or iterative refinement. But, the good news? These things want to be discovered early in the process before critical, and potentially product damaging, questions begin to arise. Word on the street can travel fast in the industry.”Through his current advisory team, Dr. Jon helps healthcare innovators navigate these important challenges and the ups and downs in the healthcare startup world, drawing on the many lessons he learned from both successes and setbacks throughout his long and diverse career. To learn more about Dr. Jon Belsher and his approach, check out his LinkedIn profile. You can also visit his company, Visura.