Data Necessary to Make Better Decisions

Q: How have you advanced in developing products to support your clients based on their size and market participation?

A: We have two unique products. The first is HospiScope, which contains information about hospital infrastructure, and the second is SurgiScope, which analyzes hospital procedures. HospiScope lets users understand the capacity of each hospital as it permits to know the number beds, operating rooms, delivery rooms, X-ray machines, MRI-scanners, etc. SurgiScope, meanwhile, collects data on the number of procedures for every hospital, such as appendix removals or knee surgeries. In 2017, we redesigned both platforms to make them more robust and streamlined. We also launched tools, including HospiCheck and HospiVista, to allow clients to search these databases in an accessible and tailored way. Our information related to medical devices and medical supplies remains our core business.

We collect information using a variety of methods: our call center at our office in Navarte contacts over 10,000 hospitals per year and we have alliances with associations, chambers and councils. In the near future we will start mapping distributors in Mexico to provide our manufacturing clients with a better picture of potential local partners.

Q: What is the advantage clients gain from using Global Health Intelligence’s systems?

A: A large part of what we do is to give companies the confidence to make better decisions. They want to increase their understanding of the market, identify opportunities and target specific clients. To guarantee good solutions for our clients takes a lot of work. We partner with our clients to achieve this.

Q: How would you describe the state of the health sector in Mexico in terms of infrastructure and equipment?

A: There are approximately 100,000 hospitals in the world and 75 percent are in emerging markets. This means that any medical devices company that is looking to grow globally needs to take emerging markets into account. China is at the top of the emerging countries’ list, but four of the Top 10 countries on this list are in Latin America. Every country is different and Mexico is especially peculiar. There are approximately 22,000 hospitals across Latin America with almost a million beds region-wide, resulting on a region average of 45 beds per hospital. While this average holds true in Mexico, private Mexican hospitals only have 13 beds. This remains far below the average in Europe and the US, where there are 160 beds per hospital. Hospitals of a small size, very common in Mexico, are less likely to invest in equipment that is capital intensive, such as surgical robots, CT-scanners or MRI-scanners that can cost US$1 million or more. If you sell capital-intensive equipment, which is usually sold to hospitals with over 200 beds, there are about 185 hospitals in Mexico that are potential clients. This is a big issue.

Many manufacturers also have been questioning the public sector direction under the current government. Sales have seen a rapid contraction over the last year and a half, between 25 and 50 percent. Some clients have seen their sales for specific business units go from US$5 million to US$4 million almost overnight.  This is terrible.

Q: What competitive advantage do Mexican hospitals offer?

A: Many public hospitals are renowned. However, they are oversaturated. Mexico needs to have a more efficient healthcare system in order to improve the quality of care.

In the private sector, there are very good hospitals. One of the achievements in Mexico is that we have been able to make expensive procedures more accessible to lower socio-economic classes through short-stay surgery and better use of infrastructure. However, the distribution of resources available per capita still remains low, even compared to the Latin American average.

Q: Is customer relations management (CRM) growing in Mexican healthcare?

A: Many clients like GE and Siemens are using this approach. However, these companies also use distributors in Mexico, so the clients are not always the actual hospitals, clinics or doctors but the distributor. With a party in between, it is difficult to manage such a direct relationship with the end-user. The electronic systems increasingly used among hospitals and other health institutions are electronic patient history systems (EMRs or EHRs). In Mexico, the rate of use is 38 percent, which is far below the Latin American average of 58 percent.

To create patient portability between different institutions, which goes beyond just the patient file, information needs to be digitalized and integrated. There is no other way. Communication platforms, like the Picture Archiving and Communication system (PAC), also remain below the regional average of 26 percent in terms of use, with only 13 percent of hospitals using it in Mexico. Systems like electronic patient files are key to solving big problems like obesity or diabetes. Unfortunately, Mexico is really behind in their implementation. There is a lack of coordination and leadership to guarantee that the whole ecosystem goes in this direction. It represents a significant investment and if there is no certainty about the direction, that becomes a greater barrier. This applies to a large part of the market. In Mexico there are institutions that provide advanced personalized medicine, using genome studies for example. However, this remains available only to those with a lot of money.

Global Health Intelligence conducts market research to provide strategic data on health infrastructure in emerging Latin American and Asian markets. The company offers four main services: HospiScope, ShareScope, In-Scope and SurgiScope