Harrogate Conference Centre, 12–15 October 2009
The annual Association for Perioperative Practice (AfPP) congress features the largest exhibition of medical devices in the UK. At this year’s event, 169 medtech companies and service providers exhibited across nearly 7,000 square metres of exhibition space to nearly 1600 visitors.
Changes in the process of commercial engagement between medtech companies and their customers mean that the purpose of the AfPP Congress is changing: B2B opportunities are becoming more important, the customer interface less so. However, a number of the Congress presentations reflected awareness of the need for the NHS to improve its procurement processes and to work effectively in partnership with suppliers.
Medtech comes alive
At this year’s AfPP Exhibition, Medtech Business had a stand for the first time and took the opportunity to meet many of our readers.
The exhibition reflected the creative energy of medtech innovation, and of imaginative marketing and sales professionals. Among many fine stands, the following caught our attention:
• Mölnlycke was voted Best Stand by the delegates for its impressive and varied display of orthopaedic, hygiene and dialysis products, offering a complete solution for operating theatre efficiency.
• Sheffield company Swann-Morton, the only European manufacturer of surgical blades, displayed a giant blue-lit wheel of scalpels.
• Eschmann demonstrated a specialised orthopaedic operating table for limb trauma operations.
• Huntleigh Healthcare won the Medtech Business Lucio Fulci award for its dramatic model to promote the Flowtron anti-embolic stocking.
• Biomet used a stark silver, grey and black stand to promote its Optipac vacuum mixing system with Refobacin bone cement.
• The ChloraPrep stand juxtaposed a living model with huge photos of skin areas to illustrate the effect of pre-operative treatment with the skin flora-removing agent.
• Ruhof’s stand ‘Ruhof Safari: Searching for the Temple of Clean’ featured staff in leopard-skin shirts and boots, promoting its cleaning chemicals for the care and maintenance of medical devices.
• LaproSurge’s roulette wheel and baccarat table, complete with uniformed croupier, put its surgical instrument range ahead of the game.
Imaginative marketing helped to capture the attention of the delegates – but what they will remember is the medtech companies’ proactive engagement with the clinical, financial and organisational issues facing health professionals who are working to provide safe and effective surgery and intensive care.
Cutting to the chase
The AfPP Congress reflected the growing commitment of the NHS, in the wake of the Darzi report, to promoting innovation and commercial engagement.
In a strand on theatre management, Sally Taber, Director of Independent Healthcare Advisory Services, discussed the impact of the changing healthcare landscape on the independent sector. The extended choice network means that private healthcare providers are competing with independent providers of NHS services: 5.2% of elective care patients are choosing the independent sector via Choose & Book. The biggest challenge for the independent sector, Taber argued, is healthcare informatics: accessing good quality information. Achieving a level playing field and influencing the commissioning agenda are also challenges. She pointed to the increasing number of joint ventures between NHS and private sector organisations as showing “the way forward”.
Brian Wells, Director of the Elective Orthopaedic Centre at Epsom Hospital, looked at the impact of patient choice on the healthcare environment. In the orthopaedic field, demand for treatment has increased by 25% in 10 years and patient expectations have risen. This has resulted in a greater product differentiation: customised implants, resurfacing implants and a growing emphasis on cosmesis. Independent providers need to define their USP and be proactive in managing the market, he argued: being ‘the private option’ is not enough in a crowded business environment.
Bonnie McLeod, a Clinical Nurse Educator in Canada, discussed how operating theatres can reduce their environmental footprint by minimising energy use and waste production. She emphasised the long-term dangers of medical devices that that include toxic substances, such as mercury and DEHP. Her recommendations included: asking suppliers to reduce packaging; choosing healthcare products that do not contain toxic substances; and investigating the possibility of reusing single-use products. She noted the urgent need for an international consensus on these issues.
Innovation nation
In a breakfast presentation, NHS Supply Chain and the NHS National Innovation Centre launched the ‘Innovation Scorecard’, which enables suppliers to register innovative products for consideration through an online portal. It gives companies of all sizes the opportunity to fast-track new products onto the supply chain. Each application registered on the Supply Chain website is analysed by a dedicated team. If the product is judged to be innovative and add value to the NHS, it can be put on a pilot contract to test adoption.
In a strand on procurement, Dave Dawes, CEO of Entreprenurses CIC, discussed how to prepare a business case. There were clear lessons here for suppliers. He noted that true innovations both increase outputs and reduce costs: those that increase both face too much competition, while those that reduce both are retrograde. One of his recommendations was to keep financial information clear and simple. The key questions a business case has to answer, he said, are: What difference will it make? and If not you, then who?
Bruce Ash, Business Consultant, ABHI, gave an important presentation on research and industry. He introduced the ABHI and explained its role in shaping the medtech industry’s policy, regulation and reputation. The key issues he identified as facing the industry are: the need to help patients realise the benefits of medical technologies; the postcode lottery for medical devices; and the need to balance the risks and benefits of adopting new technology.
Ash outlined the history of the NHS innovation agenda through such milestones as HITF, the Darzi review and the OLS Blueprint. He discussed some of the problems it faces: confusion across levels of procurement; the growing distance between supplier and end user; more products being labelled as commodities; the increasing administrative costs of doing business. While the NHS innovation agenda is being advanced, he said, the proliferation of bodies created to advance it is confusing.
The problem is partly one of perspective, Ash argued: where innovators see improvements, efficiency and a better patient experience, providers see staff and training issues, reduced patient throughput, delays, missed targets, disruption and integration issues. But it remains clear that quality and innovation are the drivers of efficiency savings.
Ash recommended that the NHS should: prioritise process improvement; avoid slashing capital budgets; offer a single adoption pathway; and allow more clinical input into procurement. Finally, he recommended that the AfPP should engage actively with medtech to improve outcomes in the operating theatre, building an ongoing relationship between suppliers and theatre staff.
