Pricing a Device: A 10-Minute Survey of Venous Specialists
The right price depends on who you ask. So the screener did a lot of the work.
A device maker wanted to know what US physicians would pay for a dedicated deep venous crossing device, using two prototype concepts as benchmarks. It also wanted to understand current crossing practice.
That meant reaching physicians who cross difficult venous lesions themselves and have a say in what gets bought. The screener required:
US-based vascular surgeons, interventional radiologists, or interventional cardiologists
3 to 30 years post-fellowship
At least 24 deep venous stenting procedures a year
Personally crossing the lesion
Involvement in device selection or cost decisions
The main survey took about 10 minutes online. Physicians described their current crossing tools and times, then priced each concept using the Van Westendorp method, with concepts shown in random order.
The final sample was 102 physicians: 41% interventional radiologists, 39% vascular surgeons, and 20% interventional cardiologists. They had a median of 15 years post-fellowship and 30 venous stenting cases a year. Ninety percent were involved in purchasing.
Tight criteria paid off in the data. Respondents could describe real-case times, with typical crossings averaging 18 minutes and difficult total occlusions averaging 42 minutes, and explain why they priced the two concepts differently.
The result was a credible price range for each concept, from the physicians most likely to use them.
