Market Research Regarding the Need for Medical Engineering Services in a New Market Area
Nousiainen, Heidi (2018)
Metropolia Ammattikorkeakoulu
2018
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2018100515709
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2018100515709
Tiivistelmä
The role of medical devices in the healthcare is increasing all the time and the sector is highly regulated. Currently there are both political and legislative changes going on in the healthcare and medical device sector, and this is affecting every operator in the field. Due to these political changes HUS Medical Engineering should be prepared to expand the market area to cover all the public primary healthcare units in the Helsinki-Uusimaa Region.
The purpose of this quantitative market research was to get better understanding of the current state of the new possible market and customers' needs, in order to get support for decision-making on what would be the most effective way to provide medical engineering services to these municipalities. The aim was to determine what kind of need there is for medical engineering services in the public health centres, nursing homes and maternity clinics of the area of Uusimaa outside the capital area. A descriptive cross sectional survey design was used, and the data was gathered with a web survey and analysed with Excel and SPSS 24.0 program. The research participants were healthcare professionals responsible for the medical devices of the health care units surveyed. The response time was between the 12th of April and 5th of May 2018, and the response rate was 68%.
The results showed that, in general, there is a need for medical engineering services, and that the need for registration services is greater than the need for the maintenance services. Quality and short duration of the service was valued and maintenance service was hoped to be organized centrally in the future. Maintenance services of the device suppliers were not particularly needed in the future. Device amounts were mainly estimates and whether the devices were registered or not, did not appear to be relevant to the accuracy of the device amounts given. Besides the registration and maintenance, some of the other responsibilities of a professional user were met better than I expected, even if there is still enough work in that area.
The results of the research help the HUS Medical Engineering department to better understand the potential new market area. The study provided information on the size of the market as well as the need for medical engineering services in the area, to support better decision-making.
The purpose of this quantitative market research was to get better understanding of the current state of the new possible market and customers' needs, in order to get support for decision-making on what would be the most effective way to provide medical engineering services to these municipalities. The aim was to determine what kind of need there is for medical engineering services in the public health centres, nursing homes and maternity clinics of the area of Uusimaa outside the capital area. A descriptive cross sectional survey design was used, and the data was gathered with a web survey and analysed with Excel and SPSS 24.0 program. The research participants were healthcare professionals responsible for the medical devices of the health care units surveyed. The response time was between the 12th of April and 5th of May 2018, and the response rate was 68%.
The results showed that, in general, there is a need for medical engineering services, and that the need for registration services is greater than the need for the maintenance services. Quality and short duration of the service was valued and maintenance service was hoped to be organized centrally in the future. Maintenance services of the device suppliers were not particularly needed in the future. Device amounts were mainly estimates and whether the devices were registered or not, did not appear to be relevant to the accuracy of the device amounts given. Besides the registration and maintenance, some of the other responsibilities of a professional user were met better than I expected, even if there is still enough work in that area.
The results of the research help the HUS Medical Engineering department to better understand the potential new market area. The study provided information on the size of the market as well as the need for medical engineering services in the area, to support better decision-making.