The term “accountable care” grew out of studies at Dartmouth Medical School which tracked the variation of quality and cost of care across the United States. Their findings showed that cost and quality were not always in alignment and that regions that spent a lot of money on healthcare did not always reap the benefit of high quality. Hence accountable care became a fitting and useful lens through which to view healthcare delivery across the country. It is also a useful lens for medical device companies to view their customers in a new healthcare environment. While every device company takes great pains to describe itself as a valuable partner and its products as critically beneficial to its key customers, companies’ narratives typically articulate how its products are patient- and physician-friendly, and ensure targeted and specific therapeutic answers to difficult and sometimes life-threatening circumstances. In the new healthcare environment, it will also be necessary for medical device companies to communicate to its customers that they can help them achieve the broader goals associated with Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs).
Positioning and messaging that reflect the values of accountable care and that are distributed through multiple marketing disciplines can help a device company educate its customers by broadening its messages to include achieving this new mandate of Healthcare Reform. And taking an integrated approach to communications regarding accountable care can be very effective. A recent blog published in MassDevice.com discusses how effective positioning and messaging can help device companies ensure their customers that they can help them achieve this mandate.
