Why MedTech Needs More Than Approval with Michael Branagan Harris of HealthTech Strategies | Ep. 68 - Full Transcript | The Med Device Cyber Podcast

Sell the problem you solve not the product. We're all trying to solve population health problems. We all want to bring a technology into a population health problem, whether that's benign prostatic hyperplasia, liver cancer, there's no point in inventing things unless they solve a health care problem. Focusing on the problem as opposed to focusing on the solution. That is something that can really make or break a Medtech company. From a market access perspective, is there a particular market that's easier to access. You're having to really try and drive change by solving problems and understanding what's really going on in those countries. Healthcare systems are all different and it's trying to look at the evidence of what the thing does, how well it does and so which healthcare system would be able to benefit the most. Hi, welcome back to another episode of the Med Device Cyber podcast. Today we have a special guest coming all the way from the United Kingdom, Mike. And Mike has been in the industry for quite some time, so as it'll be interesting to hear his perspective on strategy and how a medtech innovator can be bringing a device to market effectively and efficiently. So maybe uh, we can kick it off to Mike and give a little background about yourself and then we can get started. Before I turned it over to you, I I will say I met Mike at Avamed, the conference in San Diego last year. And Melissa, my wife was wearing a Red Bull F1 jacket. And I thought Mike hated us because we were advertising Max Verstappen and he likes to say Max for smashen. So I thought he would never talk to us again, but somehow we became friends in the whole anti-Max and pro-Max uh, discussion. So I'll throw it over you, Mike, and you get a little intro and then we'll we'll get started here. Guest: An intro into Formula One or an intro... Yeah. No, that was a lot of fun that actually. And it's funny because we've been following each other around the world ever since, haven't we, uh, you guys. But yeah, so including Dubai and we got out there at the right time, didn't we? We'll got in and out at the right time. But yeah, so I'm Mike Branagan Harris. I've been in medical devices for 37 years, you can tell it, I've got no hair, unlike you guys, I'm very jealous. Host: 37 years, very precise. Guest: 37 years, yeah, 37 years of medical devices. So actually started selling wound dressings and various basic things and ended up um bringing in lots of technologies, endovascular technologies, endolaparoscopic technologies, ran a vascular company that was a big success, a company called Venus Medical that a lot of people may have heard of, a San Jose-based company that transformed the way that uh varicose veins or reflux or venous reflux is treated. So, um, was very successful in stopping the health care system in the UK called the NHS or National Health Service, um, took them away from doing a procedure they've been doing for decades that caused a lot of pain and discomfort and brought in a new treatment and we basically stamped out that treatment that had been around for many, many decades in this country. Within three years we'd stopped it by introducing new treatments. So I sort of learned ways of getting things paid for in our healthcare system. and a lot of it was around selling the problem you solve not the product. So how do we go into healthcare systems and solve problems instead of selling products. And understanding data, health economics brought me to the point that I set up a company in 2010 called Device Access UK which I sold a couple of years ago. And Device Access UK, using my existing network of companies and contacts um that I've built up over many years, I, I spent over two and a half years of my time in North America between sort of Minneapolis, Boston, California, Texas, Colorado, um finding really, really good companies and people, talking to them about bringing their technologies to the UK and European markets and actually helping to get over 58 approved for use in our healthcare system here in the UK. So my world's around finding the best things in North America, generally, and uh helping companies to develop their clinical economic evidence to get the thing paid for as quick as they can and survive. And and it's been a really, really great uh, you know, uh, 15, 15 years doing that, um working with so many technologies. And that brought me into programs like Medtech Innovator. So I'm a value coach for Medtech Innovator. I'm about to fly to LA for four days, um, which is going to be interesting as I've just come back from Singapore. But um, but yeah, 144 companies are going to be pitching their device to me and I'm judging them with a lot of other judges on the Medtech Innovator's radar scheme. So I really like meeting the innovators and I really like working with, with them and working with trusted partners like you at Blue Goat and others that we, we know, Franklin House and others that um that do a good job and and help to uh, reduce the risks for these companies and help them to get their technologies to patients faster. So that's the world I'm in. It's great to be on the podcast.