Ask a Doctor a Question: A Clinician's Message to the Industry.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare delivery systems
• Medical product development
• Clinical needs assessment

Background:

• The medical industry is crucial for healthcare, but collaboration with academia and providers has flaws.
• Current medical product planning often overlooks the practical requirements of frontline clinicians.
• Stakeholder requests and expert opinions may not fully represent the needs of those delivering care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To advocate for the medical industry to focus on frontline clinician needs in product and feature planning.
• To highlight the importance of understanding practical clinical requirements beyond expert or stakeholder input.
• To discuss the specific need for readily available tissue fluid accumulation monitoring from a clinical perspective.

Main Methods:

• Expert opinion piece based on the perspective of practicing anesthesiology and intensive care specialists.
• Analysis of current practices in medical product development and collaboration.
• Discussion of unmet clinical needs, specifically tissue fluid accumulation monitoring.

Main Results:

• A potential gap exists in medical product development, prioritizing non-clinical perspectives.
• Frontline clinicians' insights are essential for creating truly effective medical tools and features.
• The absence of readily available tissue fluid accumulation monitoring represents a missed opportunity in patient care.

Conclusions:

• The medical industry must shift its focus towards the practical needs of frontline clinicians.
• Integrating direct clinical feedback will lead to more relevant and impactful medical innovations.
• Developing tools for monitoring tissue fluid accumulation is a critical area for future medical industry focus.