Developing recommendations to increase adoption rate of eronomic scalpels on the US market of surgical instruments

Abstract

The history of scalpel usage in medicine goes back to the ancient times. And through- out all that time the scalpel design has not gone through a major improvement pro- cess compared to other medical devices. If we look at the pictures of knives that early Egyptians used, they will not differ significantly from what the doctors use today during surgery. Dr.Raymond Dunn, a practicing plastic surgeon at UMass Medical Hospital, saw the room for improvement and created a design of an er- gonomic scalpel handle to improve doctors’ experience. However, the market of surgical scalpels already has a number of approved and tested by time products, so entering it will be a challenge. In this bachelor thesis, I will look at important aspects of the scalpels market in the US and develop recommendations to increase the adoption rate of ergonomic scalpels designed by Dr. Dunn. To achieve this I use Business Analysis techniques and apply the Axiomatic Design methodology to design the steps for a successful market entry. The results of my work state that in order to increase adoption rate of scalpels it is necessary to conduct further test- ing with the current prototype, collect enough data to understand the interest of the market. If needed, the design should be augmented to better fit custome needs.It is also important to find product champions, who would advocate for the advantages of the product in fron tof VACs.