Typically, a medical device case study is a 500 to 800-word article on how the device improves the diagnosis or treatment of patients. It can also be a success story of how the device increased productivity, revenues, saved money, improved regulatory compliance or reduced downtime. Essentially, a case study is the end user’s testimonial on the benefits of the device.
The structure of a case study for a patient diagnostics, for example, typically includes the following sections:
1. Title
2. Case history
3. Procedure description
4. Discussion
5. Conclusion
The title is the most important part of a case study. It must entice the reader to read further. To do this, it should focus on the benefits of the medical device that are relevant to the target audience. Let’s say the case study is about an advanced, high-resolution, 3D color, cardiac CT (Computed Tomography) scanner used in a specific hospital. Let’s call the scanner Gektar. And let’s say the case study uses a 30-year-old female admitted to the emergency room with severe chest pain. The title could say: “Improved Workflow, Speed and Reliability in Diagnosis of Severe Stenosis with High-Definition GEKTAR CT Scanner.” An effective title requires a good understanding of one’s target audience and what matters most to them.
The case history section describes the patient’s symptoms and diagnostics steps. The female patient in this study was in good condition, but slightly overweight. The physical examination and EKG revealed nothing unusual. Her blood cholesterol was mildly elevated, but she had no history of smoking, drug or alcohol abuse, and was happily married. She had never complained about chest pains before. She was then transferred to the GEKTAR CT scanner to perform non-invasive cardiac CT imaging.
The procedure section describes the procedure performed on the patient and the findings. Let’s say her heart rate was 87 beats per minute. The scan parameters automatically adapted to this heart rate and the scan was successfully completed in ten seconds. The 3D evaluation software produced the high-resolution, 3D, color images – the key proprietary features of the GEKTAR CT scanner. Within minutes, the high-resolution images revealed severe, non-calcified stenosis in a segment of the heart’s blood vessel. The patient was immediately transferred to the cardiac suite for treatment.
The case study includes images of the area affected by stenosis – what the doctors had actually seen on the CT scanner’s monitor. The images would have clear and detailed notes of what they depict.
The discussion section emphasizes the unique benefits of the High Definition GEKTAR CT scanner that allowed the transformation of an uncertain and perhaps initially dubious case into a quick and correct diagnosis with decisive actions that probably saved the woman’s life. Not only did the CT scanner produce high-resolution images within seconds, but it was also connected to the hospital’s information network, where the interventional cardiologists could see and download the 3D color images in seconds, and study the details of the stenosis.
The conclusion section further endorses the CT scanner by stating that the hospital has been using it for over a year on hundreds of patients, and that it has always produced high quality, 3D color images that dramatically improved the reliability of diagnosis, increased productivity, personnel satisfaction and saved lives. Actual quotations and recommendations from doctors could be inserted in this section, stating how incredibly powerful and helpful the GEKTAR CT scanner had been in defining artery diseases, rather than depending on less effective conventional methods.
By: Alec Alpert
Posts Tagged ‘Case History’
Essential Tips on Writing an Effective Case Study For a Medical Device
March 21st, 2010Business Case Study Methodology – The PAR Formula
January 30th, 2010
In this age of taking business online, in the form of presentations, video, webinars and e-courses, case studies have become a powerful marketing tool. An effective, yet simple way of developing case studies is known as the PAR Formula.
What is the PAR formula?
It is the case method theory that’s taught at Harvard and other exceptional institutions such as Wharton and Yale.
It stands for Problem-Action-Result.
What is problem-action-result? It’s a business story. Stories are known from the time of Aesop. Jesus was a great storyteller. Confucius was a great storyteller. Muhammad was a great storyteller. Every great spiritual leader in history, like Mahatma Gandhi, was a great storyteller.
Some politicians are great storytellers, they’re not always true, but they’re great storytellers. The beauty of a story is that it has a beginning, middle and an end; therefore, a story is memorable.
When a story is memorable now it has brandability, because a brand is memorable. What does the Nike swoosh look like? It’s memorable.
What is the brand that used to have a commercial; if you’re old enough to remember, that says ‘plop plop fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is’? That’s memorable it’s Alka Seltzer. Just do it is the tagline for Nike; why? It’s memorable and it’s a story.
You see stories on TV commercials. You see stories that build that brand and drill deep with it. You want stories in the PAR formula to give people the success stories of companies you’ve worked with. You can do this with people as well, but you can do it with companies exceptionally well.
I’ll give you an example latter in this article so you can see the PAR formula in action.
But for now remember Problem-Action-Result.
I want you to focus on your case studies the same way. What was the problem? Everything starts with a problem, if there’s no problem then there’s no case history or story. The problem must be defined. The problem defined well is half solved.
There must be a problem and you want to make it as specific as possible. The action is the action took by the person who had the problem. The action they took; they being your student, customer, cousin or family member, is the action you advised them.
For me it’s my students. That’s the action they took based on what I advised them. Then the result is the result they got. The result can be positive or negative, but it’s a result, which is a testing and tracking methodology to know whether or not you have to improve it or discard it.
If it’s so bad you discard it. If it’s not bad then you improve it. Problem-Action-Result; if you drill deep with those three concepts in the case study method that’s used at Harvard, Wharton, Yale and Stanford, is the case method theory of teaching.
This is the way attorneys are taught, through case method; because you learn more through the examples and case then by having someone explain it to you. I could tell you what case method or PAR formula was all day, but you may not get it unless I give you an example.
It’s because of this three part formula of PAR.
If you use it in your business it will change your business. It will accelerate the growth of your business, because you’ll start getting results. Here’s an example and I’ll give you an example of the example I’m giving you.
Problem
P=Problem: a veteran publisher campaigned to launch issues of his newsletter on advanced direct marketing. He wanted to test his target mailing list with postcards instead of the standard mailing package, which is expensive, because it includes a sales letter, envelope, brochure, order form and reply card.
What’s his problem? His problem is standard mail is very expensive. What’s the solution he’s going after? He’s going to see if postcards make a difference, so you got his problem? It’s well-defined. His problem is shared by many other direct mail marketers.
Action
Here’s the A=Action, he mailed out 5,000 pieces for $1,000, not the $4,000 for the standard mail package, because mail packages are expensive. He offered three free newsletter issues with several valuable bonuses.
He also printed the front and back sides of the postcard on the package insert so they could be put into boxes and not just mailed out through the fulfillment company he worked with. He included it as a low-cost write along in joint venture mailings with other direct mail, something you can’t do with a standard mail package.
What’s the action he took? He decided to utilize the postcard versus the standard mailing package. What happened? It cost him $1,000 not $4,000, why? It costs less to print postcards than the standard mail package and that’s the action he took.
Result
R=Result – the two-step mailing; first being the postcard and second the newsletter, yielded $1.91 cost per lead and $10.40 cost per sale for his best market segment he mailed to.
Once prospects received the three newsletters, 25.4% subscribed at a two-year rate of $299. With revenues of $4 for every postcard mailed, he made a $3.80 profit per postcard. It’s a positive result, which is why I utilized it.
I’m not even saying use postcards there. I don’t have to, because the story does all the selling for me as the person who’s trying to sell MarketingWithPostcards. You can sell whatever you’re trying to sell. If you utilize the PAR formula you’ll get a lot more case studies, a lot more testimonials and it’s better to get a story like that than to get someone saying how great you are.
That’s nowhere near as important or powerful and doesn’t have the unspoken endorsement as the PAR formula does.
Utilize the PAR Formula…
And it will accelerate the growth of your business by simply utilizing the case method theory taught at some of the world-class training organizations, institutions, colleges and graduate programs throughout the world; Harvard being one of them.
By: Lorna Shanks
