Maintaining, much less increasing market share and margins has become an increasingly time sensitive struggle for medical device manufacturers. Many are recognizing that their traditional sales model, focused on physicians, is increasingly ineffective in a healthcare market undergoing a fundamental transformation. With the costs of healthcare reaching the breaking point for government, private payers, and patients, a more complex buying process is evolving with an emphasis on decision-making based on demonstrable economic and clinical value. In this transition, hospital systems are emerging as a significant buying influence who must be ably engaged by medical device companies.

To maintain their own financial viability, the leading healthcare provider systems are building their own marketing strategies around service line areas of excellence … with a goal of building a dominant market share in the geographic area they serve. With its service line leadership marketing, hospitals are directly attracting patient/consumer demand, which also enables them to attract the physicians who want to serve the base of business these hospitals are creating.