GUEST POST from Arlen Meyers

Creating a digital health company these days is easy. Creating one that adds value and that is scaleable is not. The process is fail it, nail it, scale and sale it and that means you have to climb the various rungs of the value building ladder.

Creating, developing and harvesting value begins with defining it. Value is the user defined multiple of the difference between the perceived tangible and intangible benefits less the similar costs when compared to the competitive offering or the status quo.

Value is measured in different ways by different users. For a company, it is dollar value investors place on a company. For a house, the value is what the buyer is willing to pay. For a customeri looking for a product or service, the value is the value factor they prefer, like quality, convenience, experience, service or speed per unit price.

Here are some other things physician entrepreneurs should know about value and how it differentiates tinkering from improvement from innovation

An inflection point is an event that results in a significant change in the progress of a company, industry, sector, economy, or geopolitical situation and can be considered a turning point after which a dramatic change, with either positive or negative results, is expected to result.

Bruce Cleveland, in his book, Traversing the Traction Gap, divides the framework into three stages with several inflection points.-go to product, go to market and go to scale. The value inflection points are :

Minimum viable category: the name and definition of the industry category

Initial product release:first publicly deployed product

Minimum viable product: you have achieved customer validation and product-market fit

Minimum viable repeatability: you have a solutin grade product, business model and repeatable sales and marketing

Minimum viable traction:minimal viable repeatabililty + multiple quarters of growth

You do that by:

1. Creating product-market fit
2. Creating a VAST business model
3. Protecting your intellectual property, if necessary, and knowing options to monetize them
4. Getting regulatory approval, if necessary
5. Demonstrating a reimbursement or recurrent revenue model, like consumables, XaaS, razor-blade model, subscription, auto renewal or contract model
6. Having positive cash flow
7. Demonstrating that you have improved quality, lowered costs, improved access or improved the doctor and patient experience with data driven pilots or proof of concept
8. Published your results to show that you have not only solved a technical and business problem, but a clinical problem as well
9. Integrated your solution into legacy EMRs or information systems
10. Overcoming the barriers to dissemination and implementation
11. You have an exit strategy, whether you execute or not
12. If you don’t do these things, you will fail
13. Perhaps the best measure of the value you have created is 1) how many customers you have created, and 2) how much is someone willing to pay to buy your company.

Putting the ladder in the right place is the first step. For example, The Market Opportunity Navigator provides a visual framework to discover, compare and prioritize different market domains and business contexts. It helps you to think about your arena, rather than your industry – a key mindset shift in today’s competitive landscape.

The Navigator walks you through a three-step process that helps you to make a more informed choice. It does so in a friendly, intuitive manner, with a visual design board and 3 worksheets to guide the process.

Climbing the value ladder will be a lot easier if you are careful to pick a spot that is not crowded. Start with getting to why.

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GUEST POST from Arlen Meyers

By now you know that things in the medical commerce world are rapidly changing:

1. Patients are now referred to as customers and health professionals are providers
2. Online medicine is growing much like online commerce
3. The retail apocalypse continues and hospitals are consolidating or closing
4. Sick care sales and marketing is evolving to engage and educate patient customers
5. The buying experience and convenience has taken precedence over quality as a differentiator for medical facilities and clinicians
6. Price transparency is growing
7. Online communities of patients with similar medical problems are everpresent
8. The digital ecosystem economy is evolving towards creating a whole product solution
9. Financial technologies are making it easier and more convenient to pay for sickcare products and services
10. Healthcare professionals are being trained and held accountable for patient customer service
11. The Consumer Electronics Show and the JP Morgan conference now gets more press coverage than the most medical meetings
12. Amedzon, Walmart and media companies are the new new sickcare things

Consequently, don’t be surprised when you see a medical department store move into that empty mall down the road from your house. The department store transformed America. Now some of the very forces that fueled its rise have been turned against it. The only way out may be for it to recapture something of its past.-making it an experience for a community.

Medical department stores will offer many different departments:

1. Wearables
2. Clothing with sensors
3. Telemedicine appliances and medical devices and other durable medical equipment
4. Patient and care circle education centers
5. A service department
6. A medical geek squad
7. DIY medicine departments with kiosks
8. Patient and care navigators to help you connect to social service agencies to address the social determinants of heath outcomes
9. Data navigators to help you make sense of all that data you are generating every day
10. Health, data and insurance IQ literacy resource centers
11. Smart home furnishings and bathroon accessories
12. Healthy food delivery services, kitchen appliances and cooking classes

Another benefit of all this one stop shopping will the food court (think Harrods) with a healthy food farmacy and several bars where you can join your friends to avoid social isolation and loneliness. Fill out the form on our app to receive sales promotions and coupons and check out our low, low prices if you missed Black Friday.

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GUEST POST from Arlen Meyers

The Society of Physician Entrepreneurs was created as a 501 (c) 6 non profit biomedical and health innovation and entrepreneurship membership association in January, 2011. Created by 3 physicians and a medical society executive, we started with 50 people. Part of our vision was to make SoPE the home for a community of stakeholders interested in advancing biomedical and health innovation and entrepreneurship in an effort to get ideas to patients by offering education, resources, networks, mentors and experiential learning. We created a linkedin group to build the community of interest along with other social media sites on Facebook and Twitter@SoPEOfficial.

Since our founding, the membership of the site has grown substantially. Likedin groups serve many purposes, but ours was to primarily use the site to create awareness, increase membership, and create a platform for discussion, information and education. As the “owner” of the group, here’s what I’ve learned:

1. Content is king. You can almost never be overexposed or offer too much information. In addition, repetitive posting acts like a trigger that prompts new readers to engage. The information also needs to be redundant and relational to other communications platforms like websites, blogs, webinars, You Tube videos and podcasts on other sites that can leverage your reach. In fact, content is the most effective way to generate leads and, in our case, subsequent members.

2. You need to build a relationship with your audience and engage them in the conversation.

3. Controversy helps, but only to a point. There is a line and if you step over it, you loose points to say nothing of members. Be careful about using the platform to fight culture wars

4. Recruit other site managers to help with content and keeping the site uncluttered with unwanted posts or comments.

5. A Linkedin group site takes almost daily care and feeding and is a significant commitment of time and effort

6. Some other Linkedin group owners are not interested in sharing information or posts.

7. You need to be selective about who you allow to join since some are only interested in selling or finding a job. Exclusivity promotes sharing and the desire to join.

8. You need to know your audience and how a Linkedin group adds value. Cyberspace is an extremely cluttered and noisy place and users need to have a good reason to go there on a regular basis. The owner is responsible for “protecting” the site from unwanted intruders.

9. Use video, graphics and other media to supplement text.

10. Use the site as a crowdMOOC to primarily educate and inform and showcase people and their stories.

11. Most doctors are Linkedout.

12. You social media sites are just part and parcel of your overall web strategy.

Here’s how some others have created online communities that generate sustainable revenue.

Your Linkedin group should be but one part of your marketing and communications strategy to convert leads to customers or members. Other include your website, newsletters, blogs, podcasts, testimonials, and face to face meetings all orchestrated by a marketing operations platform that can coordinate and execute the different parts. Here are the 7Rs of content marketing.

When you take ownership of a Linkedin group, you accept the responsibilities of a digital engagement editor. That requires multiple skills, knowledge, abilities and competencies.

Most social media sites include mostly gawkers, about 9% talkers and 1% walkers and ours is no exception.

There is a debate about whether, for the average medical practitioner, using social media is useful or a waste of time. Factors include independent or employed status, targeting cash paying patients or those with third party insurance payers, the skills, knowledge and abilities of doctors, the impact and return on investment of social media interaction with patients, legal and regulatory issues and the cost-benefits and return on investment of using it.

Creating and building a Linkedin group takes time, commitment and writing and social media skills. When done properly, it is an extremely powerful way to build a decentralized collaborative innovation network that can drive your mission and help realize your vision.

Here are some more tips on how to build your community and encourage and reward UGC (user generated content)

The past decade brought many of the technical tools that were necessary to build communities. In the next decade, collaboration with customers will become both easier and more vital. To not just respond to this shift but to embrace it, here are the three crucial lessons to consider:

Lesson 1: Be willing to trust your customers.

Lesson 2: Start with “who,” not “what”

Lesson 3: Consider a sustained collaboration, not a short-term investment.

Also, remember that if you want to do crowd funding, you need to start with a big enough crowd to meet your goals. Building a crowd requires that you take the necessary STEPPS: social currency, triggers, emotion,public,practical value and stories.

Building a Linkedin group is part of building a community using various platforms, not a product.

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GUEST POST from Arlen Meyers

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GUEST POST from Arlen Meyers

These days, with all the doctors, providers, assistants, associate assistants, assistant assistants,clerks, navigators and others, it is getting harder and harder to tell the sick care players without a program. Here’s a Cliff’s Notes Guide to Color Coded Care:

1. White: of course, these are the doctors. But, don’t be confused when it comes to separating the medical doctors from the pharmacy doctors from the nursing doctors from the other doctors working in the Integrative Care Unit offering acupuncture and aromatherapy.

2. Antelope Tan: Labor and Delivery Nurses to match the wall colors in the birthing rooms.

3. Green: These are the hospital administrators and bean counters

4. Blue: Patient service representatives and risk management officers wearing colors designed to calm you down before you sue someone

5. Red: The receptionists in busy clinics designed to get you to move in and out faster

6. Orange: The orthopedists and sports medicine specialists who wear the colors of their local NFL team paying big bucks to get affiliation rights with your local NFP hospital. Some might have their names on the back of their shirts to help you separate the shoulder specialists from the hip people.

7. Black: Pathologists

8. Those wearing Zegna suits or sport coats: General surgeons

9. Taupe: OB-Gyn doctors

10. Anyone wearing an oversized bow tie with a cartoon character on it: Pediatricians or pediatric house staff.

11. CHINOs: Chief Healthcare Innovation Officers wear the pants that you would expect. Just don’t expect them to see you as a patient.

Anyone wearing a hoodie is probably an undergraduate scribe looking for brownie points to put on their med school application.

Anyone wearing an embroidered fleece Patagonia vest is really a venture capitalist who does medicine every now and then. However, now that Patgonia has changed its mission, all sick care workers may be the next ones to get un-fleeced, to say nothing of all those physician tech-bros.

Soon we will have to expand our palette of color coded shirts since practicing at the top your license means pushing the other stuff further down the food chain.

Here’s an idea: When you go to valet your car at the hospital,the attendant will give you a program to tell the players and a score sheet inside. Of course there will be pharma and medtech direct to consumer advertising to offset the expenses of production, or, we can sell it to you. Most likely,the cost of the program won’t be a covered benefit so be sure your copays are up to date. But, at least you will be able to tell the difference between the rabbi and the resident.

and Co-editor at Digital Health Entrepreneurship

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GUEST POST from Arlen Meyers

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GUEST POST from Arlen Meyers

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GUEST POST from Arlen Meyers

One of the most prolific management thought leaders, Peter Drucker, defined seven sources of innovation in his book, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (1985):

1. The Unexpected. This is indeed the Eureka moment where something unexpected happens that leads to a new product or service. You weren’t looking for it; the surprise found you! It is by far, the easiest and simplest source of innovation.

The problem, though, is that there are relatively few Ah-ha moments. Most innovation is incremental and evolutionary, not never been done before revolutionary. Like the frog in the boiling water metaphor, it also takes an entrepreneurial mindset to see things evolve that others might see, but not recognize as an opportunity. In addtion, unexpected failures generally offer opportunities more than unexpected successes.

1. Incongruities.  When there is a discrepancy between what is and what should be, you have an innovation opportunity. It’s that weird feeling, an incongruity, between expectations and results. It’s a disruption in the logic or rhythm of a process. It just doesn’t feel right.

Ask why not or what if? Cognitive dissonance, the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change ,is an opportunity.

1. Process Needs. Perhaps there is a bottleneck or a weak link in a critical process. A substantial (not just a tweak) improvement to the process leads to innovation. The process innovator is always searching and saying, “There has to be a better way!”

Take advantage of the value of value chain analysis and whether there is a problem begging for a solution.

1. Industry and Market Structure. Industry and markets are always in a continual state of flux. Regulations change, product lines expand, and others shrink. Those that watch these changes may recognize untapped opportunities for new types of products and services.

The sickcare industry is rapidly changing. But, like most highly regulated industries, rules create ecostems that evolve into business models that either support or stifle innovation. Digical care, retail based clinics, Amedzon products and services and alternative care delivery channels, like telemedicine, are examples of just the beginning of the change to care at home and DIY medicine.

1. Demographics. The changing demographics (age, education, disposable income, etc.) and moving populations are rich sources of ideas for creating new products and services.

The global aging population and dropping fertility rates will be the biggest demographic headline for the next 20 years.

1. Changes in Perception. Meaning and Mood. Over time, populations and people change. The way they view life changes, where they take their meaning from and how they feel about things changes over time. Savvy innovators detect these shifts and leverage them.

Examples of such changes include the death of expertise, consumerism, the 4th industrial revolution and conveniencecare

1. New Knowledge. New technologies, knowledge and discoveries can completely change an industry. These types of innovations are usually what people mean when they talk about innovation, yet these sources have the longest lead times to commercial development.

The pace of technological change is increasing. However, those that add true value and transform an industry are few. We are experiencing a heathcare innovation bubble.

The sources of innovation and opportunity are immutable. Seeing them and translating them into solutions that add value is everpresent but rarely accomplished.

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GUEST POST from Arlen Meyers

There are endless articles celebrating the joys of boredom and its potential to stimulate creativity. But what about being not just being bored, but being a boring person?

Here is the A list of boring celebrities.

The American celebrity and attention grabbing headline culture is all about being interesting, however you define that. But, being interesting comes with its problems:

1. Its hard work and often expensive looking that way and doing all those things that you can talk about at cocktail parties or Meetups. All that botox, eyelashes, makeup and hairdos add up.
2. There are very few people in history who were able to excel at and be famous for more than one thing. Some are just famous for one thing they said. Take Thoureau for example…quiet desperation. Can you imagine spending the night with him on Waldon Pond?
3. Most people try to fake it till they make it and often come off as imposters or frauds. In fact, most celebrities are pretty boring. Famous for being famous, in popular culture terminology, refers to someone who attains celebrity status for no particular identifiable reason, or who achieves fame through association with a celebrity. The term is a pejorative, suggesting that the individual has no particular talents or abilities.
4. Keeping up with the Jones’s is so post war 50’s
5. Being good at one thing, or creating one product or company requires intense focus, not suffering from the distraction of traction.
6. Being unidimensional does not mean you don’t need a hobby or distraction now and then. I mean, how interesting is the fact that you can play amateur piano?
7. Being boring helps to separate your true friends who like that you are boring from false ones who are really after something else.
8. Being boring relieves you of any obligation to answer, “So, what are you doing interesting lately?” Then you can listen to other person, which was the point of the question in the first place. You also don’t have to lie to an interviewer who asks which books are on your night stand when you have none or haven’t touched the ones that are there as a support for you EchoDot.
9. When you tell someone you just returned from a trip and they ask what you did, you can answer “As little as possible. I just went to chill” It’s another way to detox from life
10. The vast majority of the world’s population live at the bottom rung of the hierarchy of needs. They are worried about survival, food, clothing and shelter, not being interesting or self actualization. Turns out, most of their stories and lives are much more interesting than mine.

If you pay attention, everyone is a novel. The most boring person, if you sit down and really listen, is someone interesting

Instead of trying so hard, celebrate your being boring. People will find you much more interesting than all the phonies trying to be interesting.

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GUEST POST from Arlen Meyers

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