The surgeon loves your device. She used it at a conference, asked for a trial and told the rep she wants it. Six months later, the hospital is still buying the old one.
Somewhere between her enthusiasm and a purchase order sits a value analysis committee. If you make devices, implants or supplies, that committee can matter more than any single clinician.
Who is in the room
Writing in MD+DI in April 2016, Jamie Hartford described these committees as a mix of hospital administrators, care providers and other stakeholders. Supply chain, finance, nursing, infection prevention and the physicians who use the product can all have a seat.
Each one asks a different question. Is it safer? Does it work better than what we have? What does it cost to own, not just to buy? What does it change for the people who use it every day?
David Berkowitz of ECRI Institute told MD+DI that the goal is to “get the best product at the right price,” and that “Compelling evidence, not anecdotes supports change.” A clinician's preference alone is not enough.
Where device makers lose
They sell features. The committee wants comparative evidence: outcomes, safety, and how your product performs next to the one already on the shelf.
They only talk to clinicians. The person who signs off may never touch the device. If finance and supply chain only see a quote, they judge a quote.
They skip the cost of ownership. L. Michael Fraai of Brigham and Women's Hospital pointed to total cost of ownership, ongoing support and operational impact. His line about vendors who miss it: they “sell a quote, not a solution for the hospital.”
The committee is not asking whether your device is good. It is asking whether it is worth changing for.
What to bring them
The clinical case, in plain words. Your published data, summarized so a supply chain director can follow it. Most of the committee are not specialists in your device. More on why your buyer can't follow what you do.
The cost to own. Price, but also training time, reprocessing, waste, support and what happens when something fails. If your product saves nursing time, show where the minutes come from. Here is how to show ROI before a buyer commits.
What changes on the floor. How long it takes to learn, what gets easier, what has to change in the workflow. This is the part most vendors leave as a sentence in a brochure. A short product demo video of setup and use answers more of it than a spec sheet.
A peer, not a rep. A clinician or materials manager from a hospital that already switched carries more weight than anything your team says. Ask them on camera why they changed and what they would warn a peer about. Here is how to ask without making it awkward.
Where video earns its place
A committee meeting has a few minutes for your product. Most members will never see a demo, and nobody wants another sales meeting.
A short film can travel to every member. When we filmed Naturally Nectar, a thickened drink started by Ally Roberts, a speech language pathologist, we put Ally on camera with Jody, who runs a senior living community, and people tasting it for the first time. A woman in senior services who had heard the pitch more than once bought her first bottle after watching the two minute video. Ally now sends it ahead of meetings with healthcare facilities.
For a device, that means the person who designed it explaining the clinical reason it exists, the setup or use on camera, and a customer saying what changed. Inside the plant, it means the checks that catch a defect before it ships, which is exactly what a quality minded committee wants to see.
Regulated spaces have rules, and they apply to a film crew the same as everyone else. When we filmed Apex Dental Laboratory Group, which makes dentures and mouth guards, no patient information went on camera, screens were checked before we rolled, and nothing was published without the lab's approval. The same goes for filming in a cleanroom.
Where video does not help
Video will not replace clinical data, regulatory clearance, contract pricing or a group purchasing agreement. It will not rescue a product that is no better than what the hospital already uses. What it does is carry the evidence you already have to the people who would otherwise only see the price.
The short version
Value analysis committees sit between a clinician's request and a purchase, and many members never touch the product.
They want comparative evidence and the cost to own, not features and a quote.
Bring the clinical case in plain words, the workflow change and a peer who already switched.
A short film reaches every member when your rep only reaches one.
Video carries your evidence. It does not replace it.