Medtronic Plans To Test Patient Education Program In Beijing

Article preview from "The Gray Sheet"- June 14, 2010

The Medtronic Patient Care Center pilot program will launch Aug. 8 in Beijing to help educate prospective cardiovascular implant patients about the benefits and costs of the therapy, according to Jean-Luc Butel, group president of the company's international division.

Medtronic Plans To Test Patient Education Program In Beijing

Article preview from "The Gray Sheet"- June 14, 2010

The Medtronic Patient Care Center pilot program will launch Aug. 8 in Beijing to help educate prospective cardiovascular implant patients about the benefits and costs of the therapy, according to Jean-Luc Butel, group president of the company's international division.

Butel announced the launch during a June 7 Medtronic analyst meeting in New York, where he highlighted the firm's growing focus on emerging markets.

Medtronic is launching the pilot program to address the needs of an overburdened health care system in which candidates for implants are not able to spend enough time with their physicians to fully understand the implications of the therapy.

"Today, we lose about 90% of people who go to see a doctor in China," Butel explained. "They walk out; they never get an implant."

Medtronic has partnered with a leading hospital in Beijing, which will refer prospective patients to the Medtronic Patient Care Center for free consumer education.

After educating the patients on its technology, Medtronic will then send the patients to the hospital for implant procedures so they can avoid the "nightmare scenario" of lining up with hundreds of other patients at six o'clock in the morning at outpatient clinics to wait their turn with the doctor, Butel said.

The patient centers will be designed to resemble Apple stores, Butel explained, but Medtronic will not sell any products on site. "The only thing we're doing is education."

According to Butel, the Medtronic Patient Care Center concept is fully endorsed by the Ministry of Health in China.

"It is very important we leverage the relationship we have with the government to be able to have these types of programs," he added.

If the pilot program is successful, Medtronic will multiply the patient centers across China.

Butel explained that in emerging markets like China, governments look to medical device companies to provide solutions and not just sell products.

Medtronic does about $400 million in business in China annually, Butel noted, with growth of 30% last year.

Strategies Differ For Rural And Urban China

To help ease the pressure on its urban health care system, China is investing $123 billion by 2011 to develop a rural health care infrastructure.

"The development of the rural system will help us push our therapies, but at the same time, we realize this will be a completely different model," Butel said.

"We're setting up almost a different division within our Chinese company that will deal uniquely with the rural area and over time will develop unique solutions for that rural area."

Medtronic's plans in China are part of its larger strategy to target specific local opportunities, particularly in emerging markets, which also include Brazil, Russia, India and Mexico.

"We know that emerging markets are expected to be the largest source of growth in global health care spending," Butel said. "This is driven by economic development, but this is also driven by demographic changes."

He added that over the next 10 years, about one billion people are expected to enter the health care market globally.

However, emerging markets present their own challenges in terms of health care access and affordability, especially where much of the spending on medical devices is out-of-pocket.

"We need to be ready to have different ways to run our business to address those market needs," Butel said.

- Monica Hogan


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