MARKETNG 499 J/K Honors Case Study & Internship

There are quite a few library resources where you can search for information about the marketing of medical devices to physicians and the relationships between medical device manufacturers and health care professionals. Here are some articles that I have found that might be useful to you, followed by suggestions for searches in particular library databases.

Articles:

Found in the Academic Search Premier database: 

• Gagliardi, A. R., Ducey, A., Lehoux, P., Turgeon, T., Kolbunik, J., Ross, S., Trbovich, P., Easty, A., Bell, C., & Urbach, D. R. (2017). Multiple constraints compromise decision-making about implantable medical devices for individual patients: Qualitative interviews with physicians. BMC Medical Informatics & Decision Making, 17, 1–7. https://doi-org.silk.library.umass.edu/10.1186/s12911-017-0577-3

Found in the PubMed database: 

• Burns, L. R., Housman, M. G., Booth, R. E., & Koenig, A. M. (2018). Physician preference items: what factors matter to surgeons? Does the vendor matter?. Medical devices (Auckland, N.Z.), 11, 39–49. https://doi.org/10.2147/MDER.S151647
• Gendia, M., & Shamma, H. M. (2022). Examining the Factors Influencing Orthopedic Physician’s Decision to Purchase Medical Devices: Evidence from Kuwait. Med Devices (Auckl), 15, 37-58. https://doi.org/10.2147/MDER.S343591

Found in ScienceDirect database:

• Hatz, M. H. M., Sonnenschein, T., & Blankard, C. D. (2017). The PMA Scale: A Measure of Physicians' Motivation to Adopt Medical Devices. Value in Health, 20(4), 533-541. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jval.2016.12.002
• Lohre, R., Warner, J. J. P., & Goel, D. P. (2021). Shoulder surgeon perspective of surgical device representatives: A multinational study. JSES International, 5(1), 158-164. https://doi-org.silk.library.umass.edu/10.1016/j.jseint.2020.09.005

Databases:

• From the IBISWorld homepage, you are able to search for reports by industry, keyword, company name, or industry code. You can also browse for reports using the Industry Research drop-down menu at the top of the page.
• Type "medical" into the search bar. Suggested reports appear as you type. Click "Search", and you will be brought to a list of relevant reports. Once you've found the report you're looking for, i.e., Medical Device Manufacturing in the US, click on the title to open it. 
• You can navigate through the report using the table of contents on the left of the screen or search within the report using the search box in the upper left corner.
• Click on the "About" tab for an industry definition, supply chain, major players, similar industries, and more.
• Click on the "Industry at a Glance" tab to find key statistics, SWOT analysis, industry structure, key industry data, and more.
• Click on the "Competitive Landscape" tab for market concentration, key success factors, cost structure, and more.
• Click on the "Key Statistics" tab to see valuable data related to market growth, trends, etc.
• To download a report, click on the red arrow at the top of the page, near the report title. The red arrow also appears throughout the report for downloading of specific datasets, figures, and tables.

• From the BCC Research homepage, you can search for reports by keyword in the box at the top of the page. 
• Type "gastroenterology" into the search box. Suggested reports appear as you type. Click Search, and you'll be brought to a list of relevant reports. You can change the sorting of the list to reflect most recent results by toggling the radial button on the left-hand side. 
• Once you've found a report that looks relevant to your research, click on the link. A full-text PDF of the report is downloadable, as well as versions in Excel and Word.
• You can navigate through the report using the table of contents on the left-hand side or search within the report using the search box at the top of the screen. Notable in some reports are details about competitors in the industry, market share, and forecasts for major players in the market over the next 5 years.
• Other keyword searches to try for relevant reports include "medical devices" and "endoscopy".

To search in this database, you will need to string together keywords for the database to find related articles and information to your topic. These connected keywords, or search terms, are often called search strings. An example search string for your topic might look like this (include the quotation marks):

"medical devices" OR "medical equipment" AND marketing AND physicians

You can place different search terms into each box of the advanced search screen that comes up when you log in to this database. Each box will then be connected with AND, NOT, or OR, which are also known as Boolean operators. These indicate how you want your keywords to be connected in your results from your search. Another example search string might include:

"digital marketing" OR "online marketing" OR "social media marketing" AND doctors OR physicians

You will use similar search techniques here as you did in the Academic Search Premier database. When you arrive at the homepage for this database, click on the link for the advanced search. Then type in a search string of keywords in order to locate results. Here's an example of one of my searches:

• ("medical devices" OR "surgical devices") AND (physicians OR doctors OR stakeholders) AND (marketing OR advertising)

Use the filters on the left-hand side of the results page to narrow the focus of your search. You are more likely to find appropriate results if you narrow your results to Research articles, which is found under Article type.