Survey Reveals Patient Perspective on Medtech Manufacturers

Growing patient empowerment has produced a profound shift in the way the medical device industry conducts business.

Used to interacting almost exclusively with medical professionals, the medical sector, unlike the pharmaceutical industry, has been able to maintain an arm’s-length relationship with patients. That is changing, however, as individuals take on a more assertive role in their healthcare decisions and educate themselves about the medical treatments that are available to them, and the devices that facilitate them. A survey conducted among more than 400 patient groups across 54 countries (the vast majority of which are European) by London, United Kingdom-based PatientView sheds some light on industry’s reputation from the patient perspective and it is fairly revealing.

Now in its third year, the survey ranks the individual performance of 28 leading medical device companies, including the likes of Abbott Laboratories, Coloplast, GE Healthcare, and Medtronic Inc., as well as the industry as a whole.

Six key indicators are measured to determine the rankings of medtech companies:

• Is the company patient-centered?
• Does it provide high-quality patient information?
• Does it have a good patient safety record?
• Are its products useful?
• Does it exercise transparency with external stakeholders?
• Does it act with integrity?

Coloplast, which makes products for the ostomy, urology, and wound-care sectors, came in first overall, followed by ConvaTec, which operates in similar markets, and St. Jude Medical Inc., specialized in cardiovascular and neurological devices. Novo Nordisk A/S and Roche Diagnostics round out the top five companies.

Some familiar names did not break the top 10, but have been dubbed rising stars, as their ranking has improved considerably since the last PatientView survey. GE Healthcare, in particular, rose by 12 points since the 2012-2013 survey, and Smith & Nephew plc moved from a basement-adjacent 22 to the 11th position. Other “rising stars” include Baxter International, up seven places; Fresenius Medical Care, also up seven places; 3M Healthcare, up six places; and Sanofi, up four places.

Overall, the medical device industry is well regarded by the patients it serves, ranking “as the most respected of all healthcare sectors, outstripping even retail pharmacy, which came first last year,” noted PatientView CEO Alexandra Wyke in a blog post. “With 60 percent of respondents saying that the medical device industry has a good or excellent reputation in 2013-2014, [it is] ahead of retail pharmacists, private healthcare services, biotechnology companies, generic drug manufacturers, multinational pharma companies, and insurers (not-for-profit and for-profit),” she wrote.

Medtech manufacturers should not pop the cork on the bubbly just yet, though. When patient groups were asked about the reputation of the medical device industry during the three years the survey has been conducted, 34 percent said it has improved, compared with 26 percent who see a decline and 40 percent who view it as unchanged. According to Wyke, a steep drop in the reputation of retail pharmacists had as much to do with the medical device industry rising to the top as anything medtech manufacturers actively did.

And when asked about the integrity of medical device companies as a whole, only 33 percent said it was excellent or good, compared with 42 percent in the 2011-2012 survey. In particular, industry fared poorly when it comes to “managing adverse news about products,” with only 28 percent of patient groups giving it an excellent or good rating in that category.

The overarching results indicate where some of the difficulties and challenges may lie for medical device companies seeking to improve their reputation with patients. In general:

* Companies that produce implantable medical devices (or products that will be very familiar to patients) post a better performance for corporate reputation than do manufacturers of heavy hospital equipment; and
• Companies focusing in niche therapeutic areas, post a better performance for corporate reputation than do manufacturers in multiple therapeutic areas.

However, there is no evidence that the smallest companies always do best. On the contrary, among the top ten companies ranked for having the best corporate reputation from a patient perspective, six are large multinationals.