BHN Healthcare Blog

Bringing a new medical device to the market is a Herculean task. It requires all of the standard start up work such as determining product market fit, product design, manufacturing and production, marketing message, and much more. In addition to these, since it is a medical device it requires layers and layers of FDA approval, which is akin to hiking up a mountain carrying an 800-pound backpack.

Once a startup medical device company gets beyond its FDA approval, it must determine how to best sell and deploy its medical device into the field. This requires much more than just hiring sales reps. Such companies have to figure out how to get their device installed, have customer staff members trained on how to use it, and service it once it is in place. All of this equates to complicated logistics and scaling difficulties.

While our blog is typically rather serious, we thought we would switch gears, have a little fun, and post a few jokes about urology. Hopefully they will make you smile.  

National listing of the largest urogynecology practices operating within the U.S.

Urogynecology practices across the U.S. have changed considerably over the last decade. Many practices have merged and increased in size in order to be more competitive and deal the complexities of insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid reimbursements. Additionally, these practices have starting taking on more diagnostic and treatment services that were traditionally done in hospital settings. These services include minor surgeries, CT scans, urodynamics testing, and more. A listing of the largest urogynecology practices in the U.S. is provided below:

There’s no real love for waiting rooms. Call it the perpetual suspense, the white-coat syndrome lingers behind all modern chic designs. It’s time for practices to generate a greater practicality and explore deeper into human psychology behind waiting room worry.

I am the CEO of a service provider that provides diagnostic testing services to over 300 medical practices across the country. Our clientele ranges from the sole practitioner to extensive multi-specialty practices, to everything in-between. I am also the former Chief Marketing Officer for a top digital marketing agency in Chicago.

My staff and I are continually researching customers and prospects; therefore we are regularly reviewing medical practice websites. Through our work and research, we have made a few notes on where medical practices make mistakes with their sites. Below are a few of the most significant mistakes we typically see.

My company provides mobile urodynamics, anorectal manometry (ARM), and other diagnostic testing services, serving hundreds of practices and hospitals across the U.S.

We are considered a core service by many of our customers, but we are considered ancillary services by others.  We are regularly exposed to the ancillary medical services marketing efforts that practices pursue to attract patients to their ancillary services.  

Many marketing efforts are quite successful, while others yield almost no results. Below are a few of the ones we see working consistently.

My company provides advanced diagnostic testing services (primarily urodynamics testing, anorectal manometry testing, and other incontinence related services) to practices all over the country.

Through our work, we are exposed to practices at all profit levels from those that are hugely profitable to those that can barely pay the bills.  Based on our work, we have compiled a few ideas below that should help any practice be more profitable.  We hope that one or two will hit the mark for you.

Urodynamic services can be added to your medical practice to help increase your net income. The reason for this is that additional urodynamic services can increase your revenue by increasing the cost of the service and lowering reimbursements.

Before you decide to add extra services to draw in potential patients, you’ll want to ask yourself five distinct questions. These questions can help determine if adding additional urodynamic services can benefit your business.

The topic of urodynamic studies (UDS) before prolapse surgery is highly debated in urogynecology. There have been previous studies conducted on women who had prolapse and uncomplicated stress urinary incontinence (SUI). Currently, there is no possibility of a universal consensus for UDS before prolapse surgery in women who have concomitant symptomatic SUI. The issue is that there is currently no evidence that the surgery outcome will be altered or not by being given a UDS. Thus, we must test further using randomized studies to advance and see if UDS can be useful before prolapse surgery.

Preoperative UDS Should Be Performed

If a patient with a pelvic organ prolapse (POP) has either stages IIIa, IIc, or lp, she is more likely to have symptomatic vaginal bulging and asymptomatic for stress or urgency incontinence. This case is just one example of where preoperative USD should be performed before the prolapse surgery. It’s been found that POP and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) usually coexist with each other. But, UDS involve objective assessments of any dysfunction in the urinary tract system. Some UDS could prevent and save people from POP. However, not many are willing to perform this option.

Urodynamic practices should be consistent throughout every medical practice. However, you will find that they often vary depending on clinics, companies, and between countries. This can often lead to procedures being uncomfortable and unnatural for patients, as there isn’t a set standard for explaining or performing the urodynamic testing. The ICS standardization steering committee has wanted to update the international continence society standard for making urodynamic testing consistent across all practices. They aim to add update and improve on testing through the use of reporting from patients after clinical care.

Patient Information & Preparation for Invasive Urodynamics

Before starting any urodynamic treatment, clinicians should prompt patients for past information, physicals, and prepare for the urodynamic treatment.