By Lars Thording

In just a few weeks, Apple is expected to unveil its latest iPhone—iPhone 16—at its annual iPhone event. The event always receives a lot of media attention, with customers and industry observers following along closely to see the new functionalities, features, and designs that are expected with every new generation of the popular smartphone.

Apple, for its part, makes a huge effort to deliver true innovation with each new generation of iPhone. This is because the company knows that, in spite of the almost cult-like nature of the iPhone customer, if the company doesn’t innovate, customers will leave it for Google or Samsung. Apple needs to prove itself every year, and small improvements are not enough. The customer will demand both a better user experience and better value.

There are many parallels here to the world of medical technology. In clinical areas with growing procedure demand, manufacturers are also on an annual innovation cycle: Every year, manufacturers launch the next generation of their technology. If they don’t innovate, physicians will eventually change their supplier.

However, there are important differences between iPhones and medical technology to consider. The end user of iPhones is the consumer—you and me—and we have the final say in which technology we buy. The end user of medical technology is the patient population, which should receive better care because of a new (and typically more expensive) technology. However, it’s the doctor who has the strongest voice of all in deciding what technology to use. As a healthcare system, we almost wholly defer to the doctor’s evaluation of new generations of medical devices to determine when innovation is valuable. However, a doctor’s assessment of the true value of medical technology innovation is woefully incomplete.

Determining the true value of medical technology innovation
The real determination of medical technology innovation value should not just be based on the doctor’s assessment of value. It should be about the improvement in patient care value that’s delivered. Unfortunately, these two yardsticks don’t necessarily measure the same thing. In fact, in healthcare, we don’t even have an appropriate yardstick for measuring the care value of medical device innovation. We just listen to the doctor and pay up.

Consider, for example, the clinical area of electrophysiology. Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) is the organization and annual conference that brings together all stakeholders in electrophysiology. In 2022, HRS established a new conference specific to innovation—HRX—which is hosting its third gathering this week (Sept. 5-7). The event gathers “clinicians, engineers, developers, researchers, entrepreneurs and investors” to discuss and share innovation in the cardiovascular space.

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