Consultant Insights: Connecting the Dots from Product to Physician to Patients

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In this Episode

• 00:00 Connecting Medtech with Physicians
• 04:10 Enhancing Surgeon Locators
• 08:15 Data Integrity and Compliance
• 10:32 User Experience in Medical Technology
• 20:42 Identifying Suitable Applications for Surgeon Locators
• 24:08 Improving Existing Systems

Quotes From This Episode

Bottom line guys, is they’re making devices so they can sell those devices. So you better do a good job of connecting the dots between the device and the physician or the surgeon…When you’re selling a particular product out there, the surgeon, the doc, they wanna know like, how is it gonna help my patient? How is it gonna make their lives better, easier?

Scott Zeitzer

Getting some sort of attribution…these are one of the things that you can do to actually start seeing that journey and start having those conversations with the physicians beyond just like, ‘Hey, we’ve got this, you’re on the list.’  But actually like no, no. We had like according to this, there’s like a good 30 people that left our site to go to your website this past month, this past quarter, whatever that may be.

Michael Roberts

A critical aspect is just considering that user experience. And so the group building it, they’ll ask the right questions, they’ll engineer this in a way that you realize like, ‘oh I didn’t think about that. I was gonna send ’em to the website.’ What does that mean? Where am I sending them on the website? …Then suddenly you’re coming with a value proposition back to your customers and improving the experience for the patients.

Justin Bantuelle

Connecting the Dots: How Medtech Companies Can Bridge Products, Physicians, and Patients

In the medtech industry, creating an innovative device is only half the battle. The real challenge lies in connecting that product to the physicians who will use it and, ultimately, to the patients who need it most. While physician locators have existed for years, the landscape has evolved dramatically, and companies that treat these tools as simple checkboxes are missing significant opportunities.

Why Connection Matters

At its core, this is about basic capitalism. Medtech companies need to sell their devices, but successful sales in healthcare aren’t just about features and specifications. They’re about answering the fundamental question every physician asks: “How will this help my patient?”

The most effective approach creates a double win. First, you convince the physician that your device will improve patient outcomes. Second, you educate patients about the treatment option so they actively seek it out from their doctors. This patient-driven demand is powerful. When someone walks into their physician’s office asking about a specific treatment, that conversation starts from a position of interest rather than skepticism.

The Evolution of Physician Locators

Remember when a physician locator was just a list with a zip code search? Those days are long gone. While the front-end experience should remain simple and elegant, the backend has become exponentially more sophisticated.

Modern physician locators serve multiple purposes beyond basic discovery:

Attribution and Analytics: Today’s systems can track which zip codes are searched, which physicians are viewed, and how often visitors click through to practice websites. This data transforms sales conversations. Instead of repeatedly asking “What do you think of the device?” sales representatives can now say, “Did you know 35 people were sent to your website from our locator last month?”

Prospecting Tool: For physicians not yet using your device, you can present average traffic numbers as a value proposition. “On average, we’re seeing this much qualified patient traffic. Would you like to be included in the locator?”

Data Integrity: The quality of your physician locator directly impacts your credibility. Nothing undermines trust faster than outdated information like wrong addresses, physicians who have moved, or incorrect contact details. The backend systems need robust processes for adding, editing, and removing physicians efficiently.

The Backend Makes the Difference

The real sophistication of a modern physician locator lives behind the scenes. Several critical considerations separate exceptional systems from mediocre ones:

Data Source Integration: Where does physician information come from? Is it pulled from your ERP system? Salesforce? A manually maintained spreadsheet? The integration method determines how current and accurate your data remains.

Self-Service Capabilities: Empowering sales representatives to update information themselves, or at least flag issues for quick resolution, prevents frustrating backlogs. Well-designed systems include approval workflows that maintain data quality while enabling rapid updates.

HIPAA Compliance: While you’re tracking patient journeys and gathering analytics, you must remain HIPAA compliant. Work with verified partners who understand healthcare privacy requirements.

Regulatory Considerations: The FDA has specific rules about how you can highlight or favor particular physicians. Factual information like “has performed over 50 procedures with this device” may be acceptable, while other endorsements might cross regulatory lines. Medtech companies need partners familiar with these nuances to build compliant yet valuable tools.

Multi-Device Optimization: Your locator must function flawlessly on phones, tablets, and desktops. This isn’t optional, as a large portion of your traffic will typically originate from mobile devices.

The Complete Patient Journey

A physician locator doesn’t exist in isolation. It’s one touchpoint in a larger patient journey that requires careful orchestration:

Pre-Locator: How do patients learn about your device? Are you running awareness campaigns? Investing in content marketing? A locator with no traffic is worthless, regardless of its technical sophistication.

The Locator Experience: Beyond finding a physician, what happens next? Are you dropping patients on a hospital homepage where they must hunt for information? Or are you sending them to a dedicated landing page that reinforces why this treatment matters and how this physician can help?

Post-Locator Support: Does the physician’s website acknowledge they use your device? Is there content explaining the procedure and setting proper expectations? The best sales representatives use locator analytics to help physicians improve their own digital presence, adding value beyond the product itself.

When Physician Locators Make Sense

Not every medtech product needs a physician locator. Generic supplies like IV tubes, basic scalpels, or items where patients have no preference don’t warrant this type of investment. However, locators become critical when:

• Patients would want to know which physicians use your specific device
• The product has distinct advantages they can understand
• Multiple options exist in the market
• Patient preference could influence physician selection

This could apply to robotic surgical systems, specific implants, innovative pain management solutions, and other treatments where the technology itself becomes part of the patient’s decision-making process.

Common applications include certain orthopedic implants, robotic surgery platforms, and post-procedure pain management systems. In the latter case, patients particularly care because recovery comfort directly impacts their experience, even when pain management isn’t the primary procedure.

Reviving an Underperforming Locator

Many medtech companies have physician locators they don’t like. The question becomes: is it salvageable, or do you start fresh?

Start with honest assessment using objective metrics:

• Is anyone actually using it? Check your analytics.
• Where are people falling off? Identify friction points.
• Is the problem cosmetic or functional?
• How was it coded? Some systems are too archaic or oddly built to efficiently update.

Sometimes the cost of training someone on a poorly documented system exceeds the cost of building something new that you’ll actually love. Other times, the issue is simply that no one promoted it, and the locator languished because it wasn’t integrated into your marketing strategy.

Before requesting budget for improvements, gather data. Your boss needs real numbers, not assumptions. Show traffic patterns, drop-off rates, and potential ROI from improvements. Include not just development costs but also the marketing investment needed to drive traffic to the improved tool.

The Holistic Approach

The most successful physician finder implementations think beyond the software. They start by asking:

• What are you trying to accomplish?
• What defines success?
• Are you budgeting ongoing maintenance and promotion?
• How will you keep data current?
• What happens when platforms update?
• Who owns maintenance long-term?

These questions should be answered before writing a single line of code. The companies that excel at connecting products, physicians, and patients understand that a physician locator is one component of a comprehensive strategy, not a checkbox item.

Looking Forward

As privacy regulations tighten and browser tracking becomes more restricted, attribution will grow more challenging. However, trends remain visible even when exact numbers aren’t. The key is building systems flexible enough to adapt as the digital landscape evolves.

For medtech companies, the opportunity is clear. Move beyond thinking of physician locators as simple directories. Instead, view them as sophisticated tools that empower your sales team, provide value to physicians, serve patients effectively, and generate actionable data that improves your entire go-to-market strategy.

The companies that make this shift, truly connecting the dots from product to physician to patient, will find themselves with a significant competitive advantage in an increasingly complex healthcare marketplace.

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Note: This written summary of the podcast episode has been created by an AI language model and is intended to provide general information. While we strive to deliver accurate and reliable content, it may not always reflect the latest developments or expert opinions.