One Chart Shows the Waning Influence of Docs in Value-Based Environment

Medtech companies have thrived by developing very close relationships with doctors. One chart shows the reality is rapidly changing.

Arundhati Parmar

You've heard this before. Medtech companies need to develop relationships with hospital administrators and not just physicians because the days of the doc as the only customer that counts is pretty much gone.

Now, one chart captures the waning influence of doctors and the rising influence of hospital executives and purchasing managers in stark terms. 

The chart below is taken from a recent McKinsey study and is based on the consulting firm's survey of 249 hospital staff comprising C-suite, purchasing managers, and department heads. 

To deal with the move to value-based care and the pressures wrought by reduced Medicare reimbursement, hospitals are rapidly consolidating and cost concerns are front and center.

And at these consolidated systems, "the C-suite and purchasing managers are using new approaches to align disparate physicians, even on high-physician- preference items, and wielding greater influence over purchasing decisions. And as these larger systems strive to manage larger pools of dollars, cost and reimbursement will be major decision factors, in several cases trumping physician preference," the report declares.

All the more reason that small and large medtech companies come armed with data that shows clear clinical and economic benefit of their products. Only that can convince those cost-conscious influencers and decision makers within hospitals and health systems.

Arundhati Parmar is senior editor at MD+DI. Reach her at [email protected] and on Twitter @aparmarbb 

 [Photo Credit: iStockphoto.com user marvinh]