By Rishard Salie, Ph.D., Research Manager

Over the last decade, the idea of personalized medicine, disease therapy tailored to the individual, has been realized to some extent in fields such as oncology, cardiology and communicable disease. How does the physician determine how to provide the correct drug, to the appropriate patient, at the proper dose? Personalized medicine depends on having accurate diagnostic tests that can identify patients who benefit most from therapies.

New diagnostic tools are emerging as a major offshoot of the personalized medicine revolution, and they will be of paramount importance in the screening and diagnosis of patients and in optimizing therapy on a per-patient basis. Companion diagnostics are biomarker tests designed to assess if the patient is a good candidate for a specific type of therapy. They will help physicians make treatment decisions and increase patient quality of life by ensuring that only drugs with a high chance of working on a specific patient are prescribed. These tests also decrease overall treatment expenses by reducing costs associated with the treatment of patients and the management of side effects in patients who aren’t going to benefit from the treatment. 

Companion diagnostics have the potential to incite large-scale changes in how patients are diagnosed, classified and treated. Integration of these new tests into the current treatment paradigm will raise many questions with respect to drug development and the practice of clinical medicine.

By Joern Kleebach, Division Manager and Miriam Maylaender, Senior Research Consultant

When new medical devices are developed, one key question our clients ask us to answer is: Will patients accept the new medical device? 

Acceptance of a new product does not happen immediately after first exposure, rather it is a long-term construct, influenced by many factors, that develops over days, weeks and sometimes even months. The initial interaction with a new device enables patients to assess it and even its potential acceptability, but it’s only the very first impression or the handling ability that can be captured at this time. True acceptance can only develop when patients have the possibility of becoming familiar with the new medical device, once it is built into their daily lives where it needs to prove itself. It is only with time that real acceptance will develop.

A single snapshot measurement is therefore too narrow, and we would miss relevant aspects that play a role when the device is incorporated into a patient’s daily life. To do justice to the construct of acceptance and in order to deliver a reliable answer to our clients, we, as market researchers, have to investigate how patients integrate a new device into their daily routines and whether and how they get used to it over time.

We invite you to join GfK HealthCare March 11 - 13 in San Diego at the 17th Annual Medical Devices 2012: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange.

GfK HealthCare will give a presentation on the topic of product strategy and pricing at the conference, which is designed to encourage participants to envision the future of medical technology and health care delivery.

Click here to read the issue, which includes:

- Patient Value Driving Change
- Patient Messaging Engagement and Deterioration: Gain a Better Understanding of How Messages Are Working
- Senior Leadership Appointments


Pipeline archive is available. Skim the directory and select articles you missed. Access subscriber opt-in/comment form.