Our client needed to decide on product positioning for a wound treatment device prior to conducting Phase III clinical trials. Translucency was asked to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the product in a variety of clinical situations, and made recommendations.
Translucency used its knowledge of wound care to define meaningful targete subgroups of patients. Because nurses have a substantial influence over decisions about how wounds are cared for, we convened focus groups of nurses working in hospital and in the community and presented to them various scenarios about the product. For each subgroup, Translucency estimated the likely number of patients and established alternative treatments.
Focus group reactions to the use of the product in various scenarios was recorded on tape, and subsequently analysed using specialist software to clarify key issues. These comments were combined with the likely size of the market to assess the potential of each scenario.
Our client originally planned to market the device for the treatment of all chronic wounds of the lower limbs. From our work it became apparent that the device was much more likely to be marketed successful to those with diabetic ulceration of the lower limb. Our client accepted the recommendation, and conducted subsequent trials on this basis.