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June 2, 2009 | DentalProductsReport.com Assessing legitmacy In spite of a decline in new patents filed for dental products over the last several years, to the average person it seems as though there is no shortage of product launches each year, every one claiming to be unique and, yes, innovative. We asked experts to weigh in on what should be the defining characteristics of products that merit a doctor’s attention. “Clinicians Report staff, Field Evaluators and ‘Owner Evaluators’ observe and rate about 500 products each year. Some are genuine innovations—about one out of every five—while others are what we call ‘me too’ products,” Dr. Gordon Christensen shared. Products that deserve a second look “must be easier, better or less expensive than previous products. To be a real winner, the product, concept or innovation must satisfy a need that was previously unfilled.” Dr. Lou Shuman, President of the Pride Institute, agreed, adding that “a product can have a significant impact if the innovation provides superior clinical outcomes, has a net overall improvement in efficiency and enhances diagnostic abilities.” One measure of success Each year, the Anaheim Group, led by Jim Ferrell, publishes an end of the year industry review and, as part of it, an Innovation Index designed to measure a company’s “technical innovation” as evidenced by its FDA 510(k) new product clearances for the U.S. market, U.S. Patent Office dental industry patents, as well as European Patent office dental industry patents and WIPO dental patents. “I wanted to take a 50,000-foot overview and see who’s creating the most technical innovations,” Ferrell explained. “Whether the company is then capable of turning that into a marketing innovation is something else. You can argue that the real innovation is what you can commercialize, but since this is such a technical industry, you have to look a the patent strength as well.” Why should dentists care about companies filing patents? “You have to put it all in a complete context,” Ferrell suggested. “Dentists are centered on running their own business and don’t have a lot of time to worry about what is going on with their suppliers, but I think it’s the whole understanding of the totality of the business that would be kind of like me not paying attention to dentistry itself just because I’m focused on the business end.” Companies that have historically performed well in the Innovation Index include 3M ESPE, Align Technology, Dentsply, Ultradent, Ivoclar Vivadent and Nobel Biocare. Looking inward We asked companies that have released what Dental Products Report believes to be innovative products how they define innovation in house and what they do ensure that matches up with the needs of the dental professional.
GXCB-500 Chuck Ravetto, Vice President of Global Marketing for Danaher’s imaging companies YOUR STRATEGY: We’ll go live in the doctor’s office. We will live a day in the life of our customer…walk in their shoes. You just spend a day in the office, going from patient to patient, watching what tools dentists are using, where they’re getting hung up. Could you make their life easier, better? Whether it’s the doctor or the staff, you can see the awkward points where things don’t go as smoothly as they could go. You can ask questions, and we certainly do that, but the real big key is experiencing it. YOUR DEFINITION: What the manufacturers say doesn’t matter. It’s what the doctor says. It’s when the doctors tell you a product is the best that you’ve got something. When you start seeing doctors telling other doctors, when word of mouth spreads, that’s a winner.
VALO Dirk Jeffs, VP of Global Sales for Ultradent YOUR STRATEGY: Any new product has to match our vision of improving oral health globally, with an emphasis on minimally invasive dentistry. The next thing is, based on customer feedback, we’d need to know that the idea brings something unique to customers, that it fills unmet needs. Also, it would need to fall within the core competencies of the company if we’re going to pursue it and, of course, the dimension of timing has to be right. YOUR DEFINITION: The test of it all is: How does the product work in the hands of the practitioner? Does it bring improvement in the way that a dental professional practices dentistry? Does it save time and money? Does it make work more hassle-free? You can’t know just from looking at an advertisement. You have to experience it.
Steve White, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing for J. Morita USA YOUR STRATEGY: R&D is very important, so we take on R&D with a team approach. A team of engineers from different disciplines is put on a project or product category, and its members stay on that product category for years, so it’s not stop and start. We try to engineer continuously, improving products over their lifetime, and that yields some very nice advancements. YOUR DEFINITION: It has to be a clear advancement in the core technology or core technical part. For example, in a high speed handpiece, gross removal of tooth structure—it needs to be able to improve significantly over the previous model or the market. Second, it has to have some additional benefit to the actual user. For high speed handpieces that would be a lower decibel level or easier to hold onto from an ergonomic standpoint. Third, there has to be improvement in safety to the person used on. It needs to be better technically, better for the person using it and better for the person its used on.
RealSeal 1 Shawn Potter, Vice President of Marketing for SybronEndo YOUR STRATEGY: When clinicians talk, we listen. Innovation is driven by our engineering, marketing, sales and operations teams. We spend time with customers to understand what they really need and what issues they are facing. We use DBS to work more efficiently so we can bring highly differentiated innovations to the customer in a shorter delivery time frame. Our product development team spends a great deal of time going to see the clinicians in action first-hand. Our research and development team attends focus group meetings and speaks to the clinicians using our products on a regular basis. YOUR DEFINITION: Many companies claim to be innovative; however, many of their ideas are simply incremental improvements to existing designs. Though important this does not define innovation. A truly innovative organization changes the way things are done in their respective industry.
Lava C.O.S Al Viehbeck, 3M ESPE’s Global Technical Director YOUR STRATEGY: We have a very robust new product introduction process. It is very disciplined and right up front work with customers, offices, laboratories an d patients to get input on our ideas. We determine up front on whether the process will be easier, more efficient and result in greater patient satisfaction. We do a rigorous down select before we commit to the commercialization of that product. We determine whether or not it makes sense to invest in this. YOUR DEFINITION: Form, feature or function that you can’t get in another product.
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