Page 26 - HME Business, August 2017

The Art of Marketing Orthopedics
with a focus on patient education, specifically focused on how, when and why to use, can have a significant impact on converting additional sales.”
For example, Brownmed offers marketing liter- ature that helps HME providers market and move their products. These materials have photos of the product in action, with clear benefit state- ments that help both the provider and customer to make a good purchase decisions.
Heath Craven, director of marketing for CURAD, says that key users of orthopedic soft
goods can vary across the demographic spectrum, from children to college athletes and older adults. Here’s a look at the core products CURAD is focusing on marketing this year
and its key demographics:
• Knee brace — Knee braces support mild sprains,
strains and swelling and fluid retention. The product can be marketed to both children and adults.
• Back brace — The back brace provides support and compression for lower back and abdominal
Key Markets & Products
region. It’s ideal for pulled muscles, sprains or strains. It’s often marketed to older adults.
• Tennis elbow — This is meant to provide support for symptoms of tennis elbow, inflam- mation, irritation or slight tearing of the muscles and tendons just below the elbow. It is commonly marketed to athletes and consumers careers such as painting, plumbing, construction and culinary.
• Ankle brace — This can be used as support to an injury or as a preventative measure. While the product can be marketed to multiple demo- graphics, they’re commonly worn by athletes when there’s fast-paced weight changes.
“Packaging is an important marketing aspect to think about,” he says. “Consumers are inundated with product options in retail stores, so education on what the product is and symptoms it addresses is key. Our parent company, Medline, a global medical supplies company that serves the entire continuum of care, has an innovative packaging design to provide healthcare professionals with clear, step-by-step instructions for applying the product on the patient. This improved delivery and communication system eliminates confusion and enhances patient care. The company decided to bring that level of simplicity and awareness to retain consumers. CURAD recently redesigned
its packaging to provide consumers with educa- tion so they can confidently pick out the product that best suits their needs. Each product box includes instructions for preparing the product and applying it, features visuals of how it supports the troubled area and highlights instructions for adjusting the product.”
Dr. Scott Fried is a board certified ortho- pedic surgeon and president of Doctor in the
House (DITH), which develops home health treatment methods, including orthopedic soft goods. His products include the Miracle Splint, developed for sufferers of carpal
tunnel syndrome, and the Neck Free Shoulder System, used by people who might have strained or sprained their shoulder or have the need to immobilize their arm after surgery or injury.
Like Garver, Scott agreed that important to marketing is offering products that work, which in turn creates satisfied, trusting patient relation- ships, minimal returns and consistent reimburse- ment expectations.
“Our Doctor in the House products utilize state- of-the-art and new materials to allow better devices that work more physiologically to heal the patient and make them comfortable,” he says. “Allowing motion that is protected, such as with semi-flexible splints and devices that preserve motion, or prevent loss of motion, such as frozen shoulder, will become a critical trend in orthopedics. These new materials are creating fast, efficient and stronger devices that deliver real healing. This is what DITH and our products are all about. Since the company is headed by an orthopedic surgeon, he can know the needs of the surgeon and the doctors as well as therapists who treat these patients, understand the limits and needs of the specific injury treat- ments, and then design devices to fit the need.”
When it comes to orthopedic soft goods, the key, Scott says, is having medically indicated products that have been clinically tested and proven to create and promote healing.
“There are many devices out there that simply are not indicated for the diagnoses they are being scripted for,” he says. “Further they either fit poorly or have limited access to support from clinical staff such as therapists and docs who can help patients use them to attain healing.”
Scott says that one of the missions of his prod- ucts is to help heal the patient before surgery is necessary. His philosophy: Given the proper envi- ronment, protection and rest, the body heals itself.
“That is the heart and basis of physiologic DME,” he says. “Teach patients to heal, provide them with products and optimal education, and support as
First, let’s understand the product appeals. There are a number of orthopedic soft goods categories that can be tied directly to various cash sales customer categories. Let’s take a look:
Top patient categories
Orthopedic cash sales products
Comments
Rehab
Wrist, ankle, knee, back, neck, ice packs
Rehab and sports categories are very close in sales.
Sports
Wrist, ankle, knee, ice packs, back supports, arm slings
The orthopedic market has shifted to serve more sports-related injuries.
Geriatric
Ankle, wrist, immobilizer, elbow, shoulder
Geriatrics is a very popular product category when a caretaker is involved in the purchase.
Post-surgery
Abdominal support, arm slings, knee, ankle
Post-surgery probably relies more on insurance, since they are dealing with insurance already.
Maternity
Back support
Weekend warrior
Ice packs, wrist, ankle, knee, elbow, arm sling
Weekend warriors and accidents are due to the nature of the injury and patients may self-treat and go straight to buy a support, probably at a drug store or pharmacy.
Accidents
Ice packs, wrist, back support, ankle, knee, elbows arm slings, cervical collars
When planning your marketing dollars, some HME experts say that when considering which body parts provide the best marketing opportunities, the back and knee are the bigger markets for HME providers in both volume and revenue. Then come wrist, ankle and neck. For chain drug stores, the top-selling products are for knee, ankle and wrist. Let’s hear more of what the experts have to say on marketing orthopedic soft goods.
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