New Assistive Technology for the Disabled Elderly - Essay Example

of the of the of the Business case study for the development of a new assistive technology for thedisabled elderly Table of Contents: Page number Executive Summary 3 Introduction 4 Innovation in the field of health care 5 Product description 7 What Is focus group studies 7 What is proposed about the product 8 Thermo-electric principle 8 Design features 11 Comparative analysis 12 Life Minder 13 About the wearable sensor module 14 How it works 14 Application on the PDA 15 Research requirements 15 Regulatory requirements 16 Limitations of existing product 16 Market analysis-promotion & distribution strategies 17 Pricing Strategy 17 SWOT analysis 24 Promotion Strategy 26 Organizational Plan 28 Future Development 30 Summary 32 References 33 Executive Summary: This document gives the proposal for creating a literally wearable "wrist thermometer" so thin in its design that it's almost flexible! The fundamental physics behind the product - "The thermo electric principle" is also mentioned. The document gives a line diagram of how the thermometer would look like as a final product. There is just one existing product in the market - the life minder which is in more or less in a similar category. The major innovation with the product is overcome the cumbersomeness of the existing product there by being able to create a niche for itself in the existing market place. To be able to overcome the market resistance to a new product, guerilla marketing technique is being proposed. Finally a detailed sales and sales - monitoring plan is presented in the organizational structure that is being proposed. "Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do [1]." Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point [1] Introduction: Innovation - What does it actually mean It is a common belief in the minds of many people that, INNOVATION and TECHNOLOGY are one and the same. But this is not true [2]. Though both are related to each other in many ways, they are not one and the same. Let us see how they differ. The word 'Technology' can be defined as - "The application of knowledge to meet the goals, goods, and services desired by people [3]. The word "Innovation' can be defined as - "The introduction of new ideas, goods, services, and practices which are intended to be useful. The main driver for innovation is often the courage and energy to better the world. An essential element for innovation is its application in a commercially successful way [4]." To be clearer, Technology introduces useful goods, services etc., by making use of existing techniques whereas innovation is actually bringing out something which is entirely new. Innovation in the field of medicine/healthcare The field of healthcare and medicine is rapidly evolving. Lots of developments are taking place in this field on an every day basis. Innovation in the field comprises of introducing new ideas, methods of treatment, drugs, and medical devices, keeping in view the overall people's health status and the different kinds of disease that are also cropping up competitively with the technology improvement. In today's rapidly developing and advanced world, innovation in the field of health care and medicine has taken a completely new and faster pace. Simultaneously, the number of diseases, primarily 'lifestyle-related diseases' such as diabetics, hypertension etc are also becoming very serious problems. Myocardial infection, cerebral apoplexy etc, are certain crucial illnesses that are the results of these life-style related diseases. For such illnesses to be tackled in a better way or even to be prevented, daily healthcare has got a very crucial part to play. Daily healthcare can be attributed to exercise, proper and balanced diet, stress etc. Though there is a lot of technology development and innovation happening in this field, certain kinds of diseases like diabetics etc. do not have specific care etc for their treatment. General care like diet care and regular exercising are certain self care activities in treating diabetics. Only self-monitoring, discipline and self-determination can be forms of treatment. Today, there are certain apparatus available in market which can help users or diabetic patients in diet care. These devices are used to measure the quantity of exercise of the user. The drawback with such devices is that, the users need to input the menu of their meal at mealtimes on their own and many of them forget doing so. Another bottleneck with this device is that it becomes difficult monitoring the diet of the user in cases when the user has his/her meal out etc [5]. Product Description: What is desired in the product The product is expected to have single or at most dual functionality. The product must be very thin to the point that it can be even flexible. The size of the product should be much smaller than the above discussed product which is actually the competing product in the market currently. The product is also designed in such a way that it does not hamper the regular activities of the user. These are the features of the new product that is being designed. All these features though limited yet useful are derived after certain focus group studies. What are Focus Group studies Focus group studies are something in which a small group of people are selected as sample population from the entire population and an open discussion is carried out. The sample population will give out its opinions about a particular subject or area of study. These kinds of studies are conducted especially in market research. As there were limited numbers of focus groups, these were only the features that were derived. What is proposed about the product 1. 25mm by 25mm by 1 mm body/casing made of high quality thermo-plastic vinyl polymers. 2. The basic functionality would be on a single motherboard having a micro processor with an interface to a PDA through a mini USB (the mini USB port area would be about 4mm thick when compared to other parts). 3. The fundamental functionality is based on 'Thermo-electric' principle. Thermo-Electric principle - Thermo electricity can be defined as the direct conversion of heat into electric energy, or vice versa. This principle was discovered by the English physicist James P. Joule. According to Joule the description of this principle is generally restricted to the irreversible conversion of heat into electricity. Joule's Law states that a conductor carrying a current generates heat at a rate proportional to the product of the resistance(R) of the conductor and the square of the current (I). In the late 1820s, another German physicist named Thomas J. Seebeck discovered that if a closed loop is formed by joining the ends of two strips of dissimilar metals and the two junctions of the metals are at different temperatures, an electromotive force, or voltage, arises that is proportional to the temperature difference between the junctions. A circuit of this type is called a thermocouple; a number of thermocouples connected in series are called a thermopile. An inverse affect to the above principle was later discovered in the year 1834 by the French physicist Jean C.A. Peltier that - If a current passes through a thermocouple, the temperature of one junction increases and the temperature of the other decreases, so that heat is transferred from one junction to the other. The rate of heat transfer is proportional to the current and the direction of transfer is reversed if the current is reversed [9]. This principle is widely used in the applications like heat pumps and generators. The performance of thermoelectric devices is quantified in the above figure. The entire figure is quantified by ZT in which Z is a measure of material's thermoelectric properties and T is the absolute temperature. A material with a figure of merit of around unity was first reported over four decades ago, but until recently, there has been only modest progress in finding materials with enhanced ZT values at room temperature [9]. Design Features: Product - How it looks Comparative analysis: Recently, a new device has been developed which is called as a 'Life Minder' - a handy device that helps in monitoring the users' health condition. The prototype of the 'Life Minder' is discussed in detail in the following pages. Essential Features for Design Life Minder - An Overview: Figure 1 Overview of the system [5] Above shown is the figure of 'Life Minder'. The device consists of a wristwatch-shaped wearable sensor module and a PDA. The wearable sensor module measures the user's physiological data and recognizes the user's movements, and communicates with the PDA via a Bluetooth module in order to dispense with complicated wiring between them. The PDA recognizes the user's health condition and behaviors, and provides the user with various services regarding daily healthcare according to the user's context in virtue [5]. About the wearable sensor module As explained earlier, the device consists of a wearable sensor module which is in the shape of a wrist watch. This wearable sensor module in turn consists of a sensor head which is attached to a finger along with a body that is in the shape of a wrist watch. There are a total of three sensors in this module. They are: 1. Pulse Meter 2. Thermometer, & 3. GSR (Galvanic Skin Response) Electrodes The wrist watch shaped body consists of an 8-bit RISC (Reduced Instruction set Computer) microcontroller, a two-way axis accelerometer, a battery made of lithium-ion, and a Bluetooth module. How it works The use of Bluetooth module in the device is to communicate with the PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). The microcontroller used in the device acts as a single processor in order to digitize the sensor data and also a system controller for the Bluetooth communication. The A/D convertor helps in digitizing sensor data every 50msec, and the microcontroller recognizes the pulse rate from the pulse waves and movements. The recognition of the pulse rates takes place from the accelerations on the wrist in virtual time. The data that is recognized by the wearable sensor module along with the optional raw sensor data is sent for further applications in appropriate intervals. The weight of the device is approximately 70g and it consumes about 150mW. Application on the PDA - An overview The data that has been recognized by the wearable sensor is sent to the PDA by means of a Bluetooth. The PDA is TOSHIBA GENIO e550. The data hence received by the PDA is displayed in a graphical manner. The graphical data displays pulse rate, movement status, skin temperature and the GSR (Galvanic Skin Response). The data is received by the PDA on a per second basis and therefore the health condition of the user is recognized. Additionally, the total number of calories that were consumed by the user is also calculated [5]. Research Requirements Basically, a new device similar to what was discussed in the above paragraphs requires a huge amount of research to become reality. Transformation of discoveries of young researchers into a real life device that helps all ages of patients taking from younger ones to elderly people needs a lot of support. It will not happen just like that. Today, there are many programs, most of them being supported together by both the public and private sector, which are supporting to make discoveries in health care become reality. Some such programs are Special Program of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction and the Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases [6]. Regulatory Requirements The regulatory and license systems depend on the nature of the product that is under consideration keeping in minds the impact of the product both directly and indirectly on the health of the user. Regulatory bodies, these days, are getting closely associated with the new product developers' right from the initial stage. This development and support from the regulatory bodies helps minimize the time taken for the introduction of the product into the market [7]. Limitations as seen with the above mentioned product There are certain limitations with the above discussed product. The product is designed to be very big. Due to the bigger size the users may not feel comfortable to use it. Another limitation with this product is that it has got too much functionality. A much smaller sized product with lesser amount of functionality will be more appreciated and accepted by the users. Market Analysis: Promotion and Distribution Strategies The most effective way of launching a new product of a company into the market is 'Publicity'. This method can be used regardless of whether the plan of marketing the product is at a national scale or international scale. Publicity is described as one of the most effective way of marketing a new product because it is possible to introduce a new product to millions of people within a short span of time. Publicity can be simply defined as a process of mass communication with potential customers. Print publicity is one such method of marketing new product. Print publicity is effective because there is always a possibility of a printer word reaching the readers and thereby transforming them into prospective buyers [10]. Before actually going in for the commercialization of the product, Test marketing can be carried out. Test marketing is the stage where the product is introduced in a few select cities. Test marketing comes with its own cost. There are certain costs that are needed to be borne by the organization for test marketing. Various methods of test marketing can be used. Some of them are sales wave research, simulated test marketing and controlled test marketing. Test marketing provides insights into consumer responses and traders' acceptance level. The level of consumer's awareness, product trial, repeat purchase, etc., also indicates how well the product can be accepted in the market. On the other hand, traders' acceptance level gives information on how to market and distribute the product. The results of the test marketing would help the marketers decide the changes that are needed in the marketing mix before entering the market. It also helps the marketers decide the amount of production, the distribution strategy, selling efforts and other issues like providing guarantees, warranties, post purchase repair and replacement services etc. Commercialization stage is the stage when the product enters the market. The speed with which the product is commercialized depends on various factors like the advantage of new product over alternative products, the benefits that the end-users expect, complexity of the product, user's life style etc. In our case, the focus groups used for creating the product features will be used to showcase the product. More than 500 associations/groups of end users will be identified to showcase the product. Sales will also be promoted through the same channel. Aggressive campaign to reach the care providers (Doctors, Nursing care providers) will be targeted through a three step 'Teaser campaign.' The first two would be teaser mails and finally the third would be unveiling the actual product. Teaser Campaign - Teaser campaign is a campaign used for advertising and is mainly aimed at arousing interest and curiosity for a product in the minds of the target market. In this process of teaser campaigns, information about the product is offered in bits without revealing either the sponsor of the advertisement or about the product that is being advertised. The main aim of such campaigns is to arouse interest and curiosity and hence generate attention for the actual campaign that follows [11]. Pricing Strategies: Our focus next is on the pricing of the product. It is believed that pricing is the biggest challenge that marketers face, and quite often, they may feel that they have not set the right price. This may be due to several reasons. One of the most important is that prices are dependent on market factors. The sales of a product have an impact on the pricing mechanism. However, sales of a product can increase because it has been priced too low and not because it has been priced right. Setting the right price can have a substantial impact on the profits of the organization. A process to ensure that all the relevant factors are taken into consideration while setting prices must be established by the management of the company. The marketing strategy of a company should influence its pricing patterns. Setting the prices of products should be a coordinated effort between the various departments of an organization. The pricing of products in a market is dependent on the type of competition existing in it. The competition can be broadly divided into two categories - price and non-price. Price Competition - Marketers develop different strategies to survive in the market and attack the competitors. A marketer who resorts to price competition will compete with his competitors on the price front by offering his product/services at the same price or at a lower price than that of the competitor. In price competition, marketer who can sell his products at the lowest cost will usually win a larger part of the market share. Marketers engaging in price competition will often have to alter their prices to match the competition. In our case, we are actually engaging in price competition. Our product will be priced at 1/3 rd the competing product. Non-Price Competition - Non-Price competition occurs when marketers focus on factors other than the price such as product features, quality of the product/service being provided, packaging and promotions and so on. Marketers try to increase their sales by concentrating on these factors. Focusing on these factors helps marketers improve relations with customers and thus, leverage their brand loyalty. The advantage of non-price competition is that it becomes difficult for competitors to attract customers of rival companies by lowering their prices, since customer preferences are dependent on factors other than pricing. The Process of Setting Prices - Setting the price involves the following steps: Setting pricing objectives - Before setting objectives for pricing, the marketers should first decide the target market as well as the positioning strategies for the product. In our case, the target market consists of disabled elderly. Factors affecting demand determination - Determining the factors affecting demand for the product is essential. Some such factors are the sensitivity of price, the price elasticity of demand etc. Analyzing the pricing of the competitors - In the process of setting prices, it is always important to assess the competitive environment. The demand for a product in the market is influenced by the pricing strategies of the competitors. Marketers must carefully analyze how competitors will retaliate to the company's pricing policies. Companies should, therefore, carefully plan the pricing policies, or else, ensuing price wars may force marketers to significantly reduce the price of their products and eventually lose their market share. Selection of a pricing method - There are different methods of pricing policies. Some of them are as follows: Mark-up pricing: Firms fix a selling price on the products they product, which normally exceeds the costs incurred in producing these products. In this type of pricing, a marketer adds a mark-up on its cost of the product. Target return pricing: The target return pricing is set by marketers to achieve a specified rate of return on their investments. Usually the companies who are the leaders in the industry follow this kind of pricing. Perceived value pricing: In this method pricing, marketers set the prices of the products on the basis of their perceived value in the minds of customers. Perceived value is calculated as a weighted average of the products' perceived attribute scores. Value pricing: Value pricing is a method in which marketers offer low prices for high quality products or services. The idea of value pricing is to help the customers perceive that they are getting a high quality product at a low price. The selection of pricing policy - The selection of a pricing policy is vital for an organization, since it is the single most important factor on which the existence of the organization depends. There are several pricing policies that companies adopt. The selection of a pricing policy is dependent on its internal and external environment. SWOT Analysis: SWOT Analysis is the process of analyzing the company and the environment in which it is operating. This analysis helps in formulating effective strategies for the company to deal with the competition. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Strengths and weaknesses are internal to the organization, whereas opportunities and threats are external to the organization. The strengths of an organization can be its infrastructure, its employees, its marketing team, its latest product innovation, its international quality standards, or even its closeness to the market. The strength can be anything that adds value to its business. The weakness of the organization can be incompetent management, untrained employees, unevenly trained sales force, poor marketing strategies, low quality products, or lack of proper financial capabilities. These are some of the factors that may cause severe damage to the organization and hamper its growth. These are the internal factors which have to be analyzed from time to time. An organization should try to improve upon its strengths and reduce its weaknesses, in order to sustain in the market. Opportunities and threats are factors external to the organization and they are critical for its effective functioning. The opportunities of an organization can be a new potential market with ample scope for growth, opportunities to have a collaborative advantage (advantages through strategic alliances and partnerships), or opportunities to fulfill the demand of a latent market. Any such activity in the environment that helps the organization to grow is an opportunity for it. The threats to an organization can be a new competitor in the market, price reduction in the competitor's product or a new product introduced in the market that will eat into the company's market share. These are some of the threats to an organization. The organization should constantly keep a watchful eye on the market so that it can analyze the opportunities and threats it is facing. A single brand company such as Hitachi has to be very cautious while formulating strategies, in order to fight the competition posed by multi brand companies such as LG and Samsung. SWOT Analysis for Wrist Thermometer: Strengths: It's an innovative product which the user can wear and forget it and it is totally unobtrusive. Weakness: Weakness for this product is the existing competition in the market. Opportunity: Open market is the opportunity from which the product can gain. Threat: The other similar product which already exists in the market is the threat for our product. Promotion Strategies: The promotional campaigns would be totally based on the principle of Guerilla Marketing on a national scale. The idea is to make in-roads into substantial market share before IBM can react and respond to the market challenge posed by our product. Guerilla Marketing - Guerilla marketing is an unconventional way of performing promotional activities on a very low budget. These kinds of promotional activities are sometimes even designed in such a way that the target audience are sometimes left unaware they have been marketed to and may therefore be a form of undercover marketing which is also called as stealth marketing. The ethics of guerilla marketing have often been called into question due to an alleged deceptive, misleading, or subtle nature of the campaigns. The following principles are believed to be the foundations for the Guerilla marketing: Guerrilla marketing is specifically geared for the small business. It should be based on human psychology instead of experience, judgment, and guesswork. Instead of money, the primary investments of marketing should be time, energy, and imagination. The marketer should also concentrate on how many new relationships are made each month. Create a standard of excellence with an acute focus instead of trying to diversify by offering allied products and services. Instead of concentrating on getting new customers, aim for more referrals, more transactions with existing customers, and larger transactions. Concentrating more on cooperating with other businesses would be of great help. Guerrilla Marketers should always use a combination of marketing methods for a campaign. Use current technology as a tool to empower the marketing plan [12]. Organizational Plan: Daily data would be gathered, consolidated at the district level, further consolidated at the state level and further at the national level. End of the day data analysis and trends would be analyzed by the corporate marketing group and feedback sent through Short messaging services (SMS) to all the stake holders in the selling process right up to the feet-on-street. Incentives would be there for early adapters in terms of discounted/free product upgrades. The entire campaign would be on the lines of guerilla marketing but on a national scale. The idea is to make in-roads into substantial market share before IBM can react and respond to the market challenge posed by our product. Research Requirements: Basically, a new device similar to what was discussed in the above paragraphs requires a huge amount of research to become reality. Transformation of discoveries of young researchers into a real life device that helps all ages of patients taking from younger ones to elderly people needs a lot of support. It will not happen just like that. Today, there are many programs, most of them being supported together by both the public and private sector, which are supporting to make discoveries in health care become reality. Some such programs are Special Program of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction and the Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases. Future development: A Scope for further innovation - As part of development of the existing product and also as an advanced feature it inclusion of a Sphygmomanometer at a later point of time as a product upgrade is proposed. A Sphygmomanometer is nothing but a blood pressure meter which is actually a device used to measure blood pressure, comprising an inflatable cuff to restrict blood flow, and mercury or mechanical manometer to measure the pressure. It is used in conjunction with a means to determine at what pressure blood flow is just starting, and at what pressure it is unimpeded. Manual sphygmomanometers are used in conjunction with stethoscopes. The word 'Sphygmomanometer' is derived from the Greek word sphygmos meaning pulse, plus the scientific term manometer which means pressure meter. The device was actually invented by Samuel Siegfried Karl Ritter von Basch. The operation of the device is carried out by placing the cuff around the upper left arm, at roughly the same vertical height as the heart while the subject is in an upright position. The cuff is inflated until the artery is completely occluded. The pressure is slowly released in the cuff and at the same time listening to the stethoscope to the brachial artery at the elbow. As the pressure in the cuffs falls, a pounding sound is heard when blood flow first starts again in the artery. The pressure at which the sound starts is noted and recorded as the systolic blood pressure. The pressure in the cuff is further released until the sound can no longer be heard. This in turn is recorded as the diastolic blood pressure. Systolic blood pressure - The peak pressure in the arteries during the cardiac cycle. Diastolic blood pressure - The lowest pressure at the resting phase of the cardiac cycle [13]. The objective of this entire marketing exercise is to capture 30% of the mindshare and have substantial number of enquiries from the end-user and garner 50% of the mindshare of the purchase influencers (Care providers). Summary: The entire paper is based on the design and development of a new and innovative healthcare product which is targeted for the disabled elderly. The product is a Wrist Thermometer. Before actually designing the product, as study was conducted on an already existing product in the market which in fact is more complicated and big in size than our new product. Detailed research and study were carried over on various aspects with respect to the design and development of out product, its launch, marketing and many other similar things. The marketing plan is designed keeping in mind the competitive product, its pricing and its market share. This is totally a new and innovative product which has got huge scope for improvement in terms of functionality in the near future. 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