International Insights to
Inform Global Strategies

Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed)

“GLG's vast global expert network has armed AdvaMed and our members with front-line insights into international growth prospects and trends in the medical device industry…insights we would not have been able to find otherwise.”

Ralph Ives
Executive Vice President, Global Strategy & Analysis, AdvaMed

Bringing innovation to patient care worldwide. This is the mission behind the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed)—and the goal Ralph Ives works toward every day.

AdvaMed is the leading medical device industry association—and a trusted voice in the global healthcare industry. The association advocates for a legal, regulatory, and economic environment that advances global healthcare by assuring worldwide patient access to the benefits of medical technology.

AdvaMed's member companies produce medical devices, diagnostic products, and health information systems that enable earlier disease detection, less invasive procedures, and more effective treatments. The association brings value to these organizations by promoting policies that foster the highest ethical standards, rapid product approvals, appropriate reimbursement, and access to international markets.

This is where Ralph Ives comes in. Ives helps member companies identify growth opportunities in markets worldwide, while shaping and executing the association's overall strategic plan. When he recently needed expert insights on both fronts, he turned to Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) for help.

“AdvaMed is highly adept at analyzing individual markets in the industry, but we lack the scope and bandwidth to evaluate numerous markets on a ten-year trajectory,” says Ives. “GLG brought experts to provide this precise insight to AdvaMed, delivering significant value to our members and informing our own strategic plan.”

The Global Marketplace for Expertise

GLG provides technology and services to support a marketplace for expertise and manages the world's leading expert network, helping more than 850 client companies find, engage, and manage^SM experts. When clients need to deepen their understanding of a company, an industry, or a market, they turn to GLG for relevant, hard-to-find, authoritative experts from the GLG Councils^SM—a network of more than 200,000 experts worldwide.

CEO Summit

GLG first provided AdvaMed with access to expert insights for its CEO Summit, a day-long retreat designed to educate and inform CEOs of member companies. Ives was responsible for planning the international track—and he tapped GLG to lay the groundwork for a meaningful discussion.

“Our goal was to trade the traditional panel discussion for a more interactive session,” says Ives.

To accomplish this, Ives partnered with GLG to create and execute a custom survey of healthcare experts worldwide. The survey highlighted international growth prospects and trends in medical technology, with specific insights around markets poised for growth, primary growth drivers, and factors influencing that growth—from aging populations and budget constraints to pricing dynamics and purchasing patterns.

“The GLG survey armed us with customized data that served as a springboard to a lively, provocative, fact-based debate,” says Ives. “And the international track was one of the most highly attended sessions at the CEO Summit.”

Close Collaboration

The GLG team worked closely with Ives to meet AdvaMed's objectives around this important initiative. First, Ives worked with AdvaMed's dedicated GLG research professional to build an expert panel to provide the insights the association sought. When the panel was in place, a GLG Project Specialist interviewed the panelists and synthesized the results into a customized presentation. GLG Project Specialists are a set of experts within the GLG Councils that specialize in conducting and synthesizing primary research.

The GLG Project Specialist condensed the expansive survey data into a concise presentation mapping the growth drivers in the medical device industry in 12 countries. The Project Specialist then presented the data at the CEO Summit, helping to drive the highly interactive discussion.

“The GLG Project Specialist presented the results with a high level of knowledge and professionalism, bringing added credibility to the session,” says Ives. “This was a true collaboration with the entire GLG team, who diligently worked to meet our objectives and helped us provide the most valuable, rewarding experience for our members.”

Achieving Two Goals

While GLG helped AdvaMed meet its short-term goal of generating a highly interactive debate at the CEO Summit, Ives says the GLG survey data also brought a long-term benefit to the association—validation of its overall strategic plan.

“Given the need for healthcare reform in the United States, there is an occasional temptation to shift AdvaMed's resources from international to domestic advocacy,” says Ives. “However, the data we gleaned from the GLG survey—and the provocative debate it generated—underscored the importance of maintaining our global presence to ensure we do not miss important developments overseas.”

Ives notes that this increased confidence in the strategic plan ensures that AdvaMed will continue to pursue the international initiatives that drive long-term value for the association's members.

“We need to keep a trained eye on prospective market opportunities, so we can shift our attention as we need to—when we need to—in order to meet our members' needs now and in the future,” says Ives. “GLG provided us with the mechanism to do that.”

Driving Long-Term Value

AdvaMed's member companies produce nearly 90 percent of the healthcare technology purchased annually in the United States and more than 50 percent purchased annually around the world. Serving such an influential constituency, AdvaMed consistently strives to deliver significant long-term value—and did so by leveraging the strong international reach of GLG, says Ives.

“The CEOs in the international track of the CEO Summit specifically requested copies of the presentation—a strong indication that the data we gleaned through the GLG survey of practicing physicians and KOLs in markets worldwide would be beneficial to their organizations.”

In the end, Ives says access to GLG Council Members has enabled AdvaMed's member companies to better understand international growth opportunities and trends in the medical device industry, while moving the association closer and closer to its goal of bringing innovation to patient care, worldwide.

“The GLG survey armed us with customized data that served as a springboard to a lively, provocative, fact-based debate.”

Ralph Ives
Executive Vice President, Global Strategy & Analysis, AdvaMed