Entrepreneurs entering the medical technology space often begin with an idea—an elegant mechanism, a clever algorithm, or a new way to diagnose or treat disease. But innovation alone doesn’t guarantee impact. A device only becomes meaningful when it aligns with the needs, motivations, and constraints of the people who will use it or be affected by it.

This column is the first in a five-part series designed for founders and early-stage teams who want to expand their understanding of their market landscape through the lens of the Five Ps: Patients, Physicians (clinicians), Providers (facilities and organizations), Payers (insurance companies), and Policy Makers. Each article will focus on one stakeholder group, discussing the dynamics that shape their decisions and the unmet needs that should guide your product development.

This article will begin with the most essential stakeholder of all: Patients. In the articles that follow throughout the year, we’ll turn to Physicians, Providers, Payers, and Policy Makers to complete the picture.

The Primary Customer

Patients are at the center of healthcare, yet they are often the least understood group early in the product development process. It’s easy to think of “the patient” as a category—an abstraction defined by a diagnosis or a demographic. But real patients are far more complex. They carry histories, emotions, fears, and daily routines that shape how they experience illness and how they interact with medical technology.

Ensuring patients are heard throughout the development process will lead to a more successful experience and an improved likelihood of market success. Data from Gallup’s annual Health and Healthcare Poll, conducted in November 2024, was published by NCHstats and shows the trends of patient perceptions of U.S. healthcare quality and coverage.¹ Unfortunately, Americans’ perspectives on the healthcare system have been declining over the past four years (Figure 1), and while there are a variety of factors that contribute to the decline in these perceptions, beneficial and easy-to-use products need to be part of the improvements in the future. 

Understanding patients begins with understanding who they are. This means going beyond the clinical definition of a disease and exploring how that condition unfolds in real life. A diagnosis rarely exists in isolation; comorbidities, lifestyle factors, and social circumstances all influence how a patient manages their health. A person living with heart disease in a rural community faces different challenges than someone with the same condition in a major city. A teenager managing Type 1 diabetes navigates different emotional and social pressures than an older adult with the same diagnosis. These nuances matter because they shape what “usable,” “accessible,” and “helpful” truly mean.

However, patients do not navigate their conditions alone. Their world often includes family members, caregivers, home health aides, and sometimes entire advocacy communities. These groups can be powerful sources of insight. Organizations like the American Heart Association or the National Organization for Rare Disorders connect innovators to people living with specific conditions, offering a window into the daily realities that clinical literature rarely captures. These interactions can reveal needs that traditional research misses.

A well-known example comes from the evolution of insulin pumps. Early pumps were effective but cumbersome, tethering patients to tubing that restricted movement and drew unwanted attention. While these devices functioned well, the development of wearable, tubeless pumps offered greater freedom and dignity for the patient users. This shift didn’t just improve convenience; it transformed adherence and quality of life.

Understanding patients also requires examining how they access care. Even the most sophisticated device can fail if patients cannot reach the clinics that use it, afford the treatment it requires, or navigate the system that supports it. Transportation barriers, long wait times, insurance limitations, and the emotional toll of chronic illness all influence whether a patient will embrace a new technology. Sometimes the greatest innovation is not a new feature but a reduction in friction—fewer appointments, simpler instructions, or a design that fits naturally into daily life.

Ultimately, identifying the unmet needs of patients is not about compiling a checklist. It’s about developing empathy for the lived experience of illness. Patients may need comfort, independence, reassurance, or a sense of control as much as they need clinical efficacy. When you understand these deeper needs, your product becomes more than a device—it becomes a partner in their care.

A Word from Webeck

At the end of the day, every medical technology succeeds or fails based on how well it fits into the real lives of patients. When innovators look beyond diagnoses and listen to lived experience, they uncover the practical and emotional needs that truly drive adoption. Designing with empathy isn’t a soft skill here—it’s the strategic foundation of meaningful innovation.

Reference

¹ tinyurl.com/odt260121

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Ilsa Webeck has more than 30 years of experience assessing commercial and market viability in the medtech space. At Simbex, a design, development, and commercialization firm, she works with companies of all sizes in support of the commercialization pathway, performing primary and secondary research to uncover unmet needs, establishing value propositions, and supporting development of regulatory, reimbursement, and quality strategies. Prior to Simbex, Webeck founded MedTech Strategies where she worked with a wide range of medtech organizations focused on assessing commercial fit, establishing a path to commercial success. Her previous experiences include group product director at J&J’s DePuy Spine, leading the strategic marketing efforts and upstream marketing team, and associate director for global commercial strategy in the MS Franchise at Biogen Idec. For more information, visit www.simbex.com.