Innovating Medical Equipment for Fastlane

[Lex DeVille]

Stumbled across these crutches this morning

For those who want to innovate / invent, there's a lot of medical products that haven't changed much over the years.

...what other medical equipment might be modified to make life a little easier?

Maybe buy some of the products that exist and see what their limitations are.

What do they stop you or hinder you from doing? How can you fix that?

What makes them uncomfortable or ugly? How can you fix that?


Tech INSIDERS - New Design for Crutches

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Rudynate]

There are some significant barriers to entry:

Depending on the type of product, it may require FDA pre-marketing approval, which can be a major cost.

Suppliers incur enormous liability for design and/or manufacturing defects.

The profit potential seems enormous, though. Durable goods such as what the OP is talking about (crutches, canes, walkers, support hose, arm braces, shoulder braces, etc.) seem to be stratospherically priced just because they are medical/healthcare products.

Worth negotiating the barriers to entry.

I suspect that there will always be a market for products for improving sleep quality.

 

[100k]

I keep having this stupid silly idea of improving leading sticks for the blind.... is that really the best way to guide people? What if there was a ball or something like that at the bottom so they could leave the stick to the ground at all the time and could make it a longer (and shorter) if they wanted to.

Meh, this is just one of the ideas that pop into my mind when I am in my own world.

 

[TonyStark]

I read that medical equipment had to be like really precise, down to the gram, or something like that.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Daniel A]

Recently I went to an event where entrepreneurs pitched to financiers (many of the sponsors were banks). It was the second year I went and I was surprised with how good some of the ideas were.

One group did exactly what the title of this thread is...

They innovated existing medical equipment and eventually won either first or second place (tens of thousands of dollars and professional accounting, legal, etc services). One of the guys said himself that the company will have a whole suite of products for medical equipment and the two they pitched were only their current flagships. I'm sure they're going to do very well because they had a team of seriously smart guys (yes, with advanced degrees too) and products that are already used but better.

One of the upcoming classes I'm looking forward to the most is Product Innovation. From what I heard the entire semester we develop products and pitch them. I'm hoping my fastlane or at least one fo them is spawned because of that class.

P.S. If any lurkers or members think we went to the same event (country club, northern California) PM me, please! I had to leave early so I didn't get anyone's contact information.

 

[Rudynate]

I read that medical equipment had to be like really precise, down to the gram, or something like that.

It would depend on the product you were talking about. A precision instrument like a PET scanner or a cane? They're all considered medical devices.

 

[Tom.V]

There are some significant barriers to entry:

You pretty much nailed it for the most part. Huge potential liability, FDA scrutiny, FTC scrutiny, a plethora of hoops to jump through to accept insurance in its various forms (private, Medicare, Medicade) for DME and the like.

But there's also an ominous giant that you overlooked that has a tendency to obliterate competition and innovation from a huge position of power: the GPO's. Here's an old article, but an interesting look at how these multi-billion dollar juggernauts operate. It's not pretty for the budding competitors, particularly since these companies have consolidated to the point of almost monopolization, and when you control the bulk of the orders and logistics for a majority of the country's medical facilities by means of stringent contractual buying agreements with harsh penalties(and even worse, if they cut off these facilities to medical supplies), it makes it FAR more difficult.

http://www.alternet.org/story/14821...ompanies_are_getting_away_with_rip-off_prices

So yeah, you could say there are some significant barriers to entry. Not even going to dig into the capital requirements.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Lex DeVille]

You pretty much nailed it for the most part. Huge potential liability, FDA scrutiny, FTC scrutiny, a plethora of hoops to jump through to accept insurance in its various forms (private, Medicare, Medicade) for DME and the like.

But there's also an ominous giant that you overlooked that has a tendency to obliterate competition and innovation from a huge position of power: the GPO's. Here's an old article, but an interesting look at how these multi-billion dollar juggernauts operate. It's not pretty for the budding competitors, particularly since these companies have consolidated to the point of almost monopolization, and when you control the bulk of the orders and logistics for a majority of the country's medical facilities by means of stringent contractual buying agreements with harsh penalties(and even worse, if they cut off these facilities to medical supplies), it makes it FAR more difficult.

http://www.alternet.org/story/14821...ompanies_are_getting_away_with_rip-off_prices

So yeah, you could say there are some significant barriers to entry. Not even going to dig into the capital requirements.

Capital requirements can likely be covered with crowdfunding.

Unless we're talking complex medical equipment it can probably be sold direct to customer and skip the hospital.

Here's an example of crutches.

I dunno anything about the FDA though. For the right entrepreneur it could be worth a look.

I was thinking more in terms of smaller less complex items like knee braces, finger splints, things of that nature.

Recently I bought a knee brace on Amazon. It sucks. Slides down my leg every time I run. Somehow it has a lot of good reviews.

 

[Rudynate]

Capital requirements can likely be covered with crowdfunding.

Unless we're talking complex medical equipment it can probably be sold direct to customer and skip the hospital.

Here's an example of crutches.

I dunno anything about the FDA though. For the right entrepreneur it could be worth a look.

I was thinking more in terms of smaller less complex items like knee braces, finger splints, things of that nature.

Recently I bought a knee brace on Amazon. It sucks. Slides down my leg every time I run. Somehow it has a lot of good reviews.

If you keep it simple - knee braces, crutches, what are called "durable goods" within the healthcare industry, I think there are opportunities for fastlane entrepreneurs.