Medical Device Representatives coach Surgeons in the Operating Rooms

Feeds:: Posts; Comments

« 2021 Virtual World Medical Innovation Forum, Mass General Brigham, Gene and Cell Therapy, VIRTUAL May 19–21, 2021

FDA emergency use authorization would bring the public a third vaccine for the novel coronavirus – J&J single vaccine – Authorized on 2/28/2021 »

Medical Device Representatives coach Surgeons in the Operating Rooms

March 1, 2021 by 2012pharmaceutical

Medical Device Representatives coach Surgeons in the Operating Rooms

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Medical Device Representatives: The Untold Story

February 23, 2021 | Ryan Egeland, MD, PhD | Experience Stories

Sponsored by Cardiovascular Systems, Inc.

Tom Fogarty, a cardiovascular surgeon who holds more than 100 surgical patents, says the pace of medical innovation necessitates that sales representatives play a teaching role in operating rooms. “In our training as doctors, we’re not taught to accommodate emerging technologies,” he told Stanford Medicine Magazine. That’s problematic, Fogarty said, because “Medical innovators and inventors are very impatient. They truly believe what they are creating is better than what currently exists. They want to get it to the patient as quickly as possible.” ²

Coaching and Guidance

The second role that sales representatives play is to coach and provide guidance to physicians as they perform procedures. In a widely read New Yorker article, the surgeon Dr. Atul Gawande wrote about his experience using a coach to improve his surgical technique. Yet, as any doctor practicing in a busy metropolitan hospital will tell you, their peers are much too busy managing their patient loads to spend time coaching them. ³

Sponsored by Cardiovascular Systems, Inc.

What Reps Don’t Do

As a surgeon and a healthcare executive, I’ve learned that the best device representatives are defined by what they won’t do: push a physician to use their product when it’s inappropriate. Villa says she sometimes sees patients who have blood clots in their arteries. “I will never recommend our product when there’s a clot because you can do more harm than good,” she says. “Ultimately, it’s up to the doctor’s discretion, but I’ll come right out and tell them, ‘I don’t know if CSI is the right product for that.’”

Just like physicians, device sales representatives have reputations to protect. A physician will recommend a helpful and knowledgeable sales representative to a colleague; but if the sales representative is clearly only interested in their bottom line — as opposed to the patient’s well-being — they’ll soon find that their calls go unanswered. For this reason, Nasser says he often finds himself advising physicians that his product isn’t appropriate for a patient. “You might not get the case,” he says, “but you’ll earn the trust of the physician.”

There’s a second — and more important — explanation for why these device representatives won’t push their products to boost sales. Simply put, that’s not why they’re in business. Nasser, for example, got into device sales after his father died of a heart attack. “I approach every case as if that were my family member and I ask what would be best for them,” he says.

“You can’t fake the passion and the caring you have,” adds Staub. “People see through if it’s just a business transaction.” Instead, he attributes his longevity to “engaging physicians in an educational way and getting across that you can be a partner in the care of their patients.”

When asked why she does her job, Villa thinks about the 77-year old woman she helped the day she drove to the hospital early in the morning. When the woman’s foot, which initially had turned grey, started to turn pink after the procedure, Villa says she was overcome with “a wonderful feeling. That patient had a fear of losing her limb and woke up knowing that her leg was still there. Saving limbs and saving lives. That’s the beauty of our job.”

¹ O’Connor B, Pollner F, Fugh-Berman A (2016) Salespeople in the Surgical Suite: Relationships between Surgeons and Medical Device Representatives. PLoS ONE 11(8): e0158510. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0158510

² White, T. Stanford Medicine Magazine, 2006, Fall Issue. Father of invention – Stanford Medicine Magazine – Stanford University School of Medicine

³ Gawande, A. The New Yorker, October 3, 2011. The Coach in the Operating Room | The New Yorker

SOURCE

https://www.cardiovascularbusiness.com/sponsored/2052/medical-device-representatives-untold-story

From: Cardiovascular Business <announcements@mail.cardiovascularbusiness.com>

Reply-To: Cardiovascular Business <announcements@mail.cardiovascularbusiness.com>

Date: Monday, March 1, 2021 at 10:30 AM

To: “Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN” <AvivaLev-Ari@alum.berkeley.edu>

Subject: The Untold Story of Medical Device Reps: A Physician’s Perspective