In Medical Devices, Is "Good Enough" Good Enough?

Add to the multiple challenges that small – and large – medical device companies face today – an increasingly lengthy and expensive regulatory process, a scarcity of capital – venture and otherwise, and a constrained M&A environment – a new dynamic that could even more radically change the nature of the device industry: an insistence by payors, providers, and policy makers that the benefits (and value) of new technology lie less in its ability to enhance existing technologies or procedures, than in its ability to provide adequate clinical solutions at a reduced cost.

The idea is popping up in a number of catch phrases: "negative innovation," "reverse innovation," "good enough" technology. ( See...