31 Vascular Specialists, Three Venues: How In-Person Fieldwork Tested Three Procedural Accessory Concepts
Hands-on concepts demand in-person interviews, so we built the recruitment around where vascular specialists already gather: a research facility and two major congresses.
A manufacturer wanted feedback on three procedural accessory concepts: a steerable sheath, a large-bore closure patch and a thrombectomy docking device. For each, it wanted to understand current practice, views on products already on the market and reactions to the prototype.
Fieldwork ran in person at three venues over two months:
A research facility in New York
The Northwestern Vascular Symposium in Chicago
ESVS congress
US interviews lasted 90 minutes and covered all three concepts. European interviews lasted 60 minutes and covered two, after the team decided not to continue the docking device in Europe.
The final sample was 31 physicians:
US: 19 (10 vascular surgeons, 6 interventional radiologists, 3 interventional cardiologists)
Europe: 12 (10 vascular surgeons, 1 interventional radiologist, 1 interventional cardiologist)
Combining a facility with two congresses helped fill the US quota within a week, while ESVS provided efficient access to European physicians.
The result was clear concept-by-concept feedback, including product specification requests needed for product development.
