Medical Device Start-ups: Don't Forget Your Data

Medical Device start-ups tend to focus too much on R&D and product fit. Often forgetting the value of their own data. But why is data important? How can small organizations turn their data into their advantage?

The Booming Industry of Medical Devices and MedTech

Development within the medical device industry continues to grow worldwide. In turn, access to technology and entrepreneurial support increases. For the past 8 years, the global MedTech market has grown around 100 billion USD. And it’s expected to grow at least 100 billion more until 2022.The global growth is impressive! But, the growth of the Israeli MedTech market is even more inspiring. To take an example, in Israel, Medical Device and MedTech companies cover the major part of the Life Science Industry. This is mainly because of two reasons.[caption id="attachment_2490" align="alignright" width="300"]

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• There are official governmental supported accelerators that focus only on medical device innovation
• Out of total VC investments in Israeli healthcare, 50% is in medical device companies

Innovation drives new ideas and development. To keep the ideas afloat, Israel provides various sources for funding. Through accelerators, incubators and VC’s that focus on growth. Israeli start-ups are bringing improvements to the lives of people around the world. With around 568 registered medical device companies as of 2016, Israel, as well as many other MedTech markets, is contributing to the world healthcare market through continuous innovation. But fast growth can have its side effects.

The Importance of Access to Data for Medical Device start-ups

As start-ups focus on fast growth and development of the business. Evidence data and quality are often set aside to focus on funding, employment, R&D, and a proof of concept. However, this can prove troublesome later on. Collection and storage of quality data can be useful for future due diligence, safety, and regulatory purposes Start-ups working toward attaining FDA and/or CE approval need quality data. As data can be useful to fuel R&D and learning as well. As development and innovation continues to grow, data can become a valuable asset for companies. Startups should recognize this and start collecting quality data right from the start and throughout the whole R&D and product lifecycle Having quality data and evidence available at the right time can turn into a big advantage later on.

Take data collection into account

There are millions of SaaS (software as a service) solutions out there, ready to help with any of your daily tasks. Due to the vast availability of modern SaaS solutions, data collection platforms have become less expensive. Medical device companies should utilize this to their advantage and stop using Excel as a form of data collection.Yet, budgets for start-ups and small companies are always tight. But, many solutions already provide start-ups with budget-friendly licenses which should be utilized to the fullest.We believe that quality data collection from day one will save organizations enormous amounts of money and time. Especially in the long term. In addition to further support due diligence and market access.However, quality always comes with a price.But as long as that price is taken into account, the money you save by having quality data will always outplay low quality or no data at all.