A Framework to Determine the Potential for Success of New Medical Robotic Products
A very interesting thesis was published recently from UTwente. "A Framework to Determine the Potential for Success of New Medical Robotic Products--Assessment by Cooper Scoring Model and TOPSIS Analysis". Finally, not only the technological aspects are being discussed. Success is innovation is "1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration".
"Background - At the early years of the 21st century, the introduction of
innovative medical technology was in an increasing trend. One of the
emerging medical technologies that are currently available in healthcare
fields are robotic devices. Medical robotic systems have already
brought a lot of improvisations in existing medical procedures such as
the development of less-invasive medical procedures to produce fewer
side effects and faster recovery times. Introducing innovation in
healthcare such as idea, practice, or product is widely recognized as a
complex process. As innovations are central to business prosperity, the
industries and companies try to rapidly develop new technologies to
create new and fierce competition. ASML – a mechatronic company, saw a
potentially promising business within this field. ASML needs to have
some certain indication if the type of new medical robotic products that
they are going to produce will have a chance to succeed on the
healthcare market. Therefore, this research project is conducted in a
collaboration between ASML and University of Twente. ASML wants to
analyze the most attractive surgical robotics present on the market to
discover new medical robotic products with a large market and low entry
barriers.
Objective/Research Question - To assess the likely success of medical
robotic innovations; supporting the investment decision of ASML in
medical robotics. Four research questions are formulated in order to
achieve the research objectives: 1. Which diseases or treatments have
the largest clinical market?; 2. Which medical robotic products are
currently available in healthcare?; 3. Which diseases or treatments that
have the largest clinical market could be successfully addressed by
medical robotic products?; 4. Which medical robotic devices for which
diseases or treatments fit the core competences of ASML?
Methods - A thorough literature review was undertaken in order to
identify the size of market for new medical robotic device, as well as
to find out which diseases that will be better and have more value to
patient if the treatments were supported by robotic devices. Afterwards,
an interview with expert was conducted in order to validate the
findings from literature review. Finally, a scoring model based on the
work by Cooper (1985) in combination with success factors in healthcare
field by Fleuren (2004) was used. To do the scoring, we had to collect
information from internet about several medical robotic devices that
have been successful in entering the healthcare market. Afterwards, the
scoring model was quantified using TOPSIS method to calculate the
likelihood of success of the alternative medical robotics.
Results – After taking the literature review by using several internet
search engines and doing an interview with an expert for validation, we
found out five diseases and treatments as the largest clinical market.
We also found out nine robotic cases as alternatives to be compared in
the Cooper scoring models. Those nine robotic cases are Da Vinci System,
the Flex System, SPORT, and SPIDER for minimally invasive surgery
procedures, ARTAS for hair transplantation, Sensei and Magellan System
for intravascular surgery, Cyberknife System for radiosurgery,
MAKOplasty for knee and hip replacement surgery, and PRECEYES for eye
surgery (microsurgery). Finally, after scoring each alternative by
Cooper scoring model and quantifying it with TOPSIS analysis, we got top
four robotic alternatives that had the highest results and could be
considered by ASML in order to support the investment decision of ASML
in medical robotics.
Conclusion/Recommendation – The assessment by Cooper scoring models and
TOPSIS analysis method resulted four alternatives as the most ideal
devices that could bring success to ASML including Da Vinci, SPORT,
Cyberknife, and PRECEYES. However, we chose Da Vinci as the final
recommendation for ASML based on the rough calculation of total gross
revenue per year that were influenced by several factors such as the
number of target group and the estimated selling price. There are three
key points that have to be highlighted by ASML in order to enter such
market: (a) cost, (b) technology or functionality, and (c) intellectual
property. Accordingly, we recommend ASML to develop a surgical robotic
device that has an advanced technology, less expensive, and easy to
operate."
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