Medical Device Daily Executive Editor

DENVER — Mixed in with the broad spectrum of company presentations and exhibits — from “virtual” to mature — at last week’s BioWest Conference were the broader “cheerleading” and “inspirational” presentations familiar to conference-goers.

The best-targeted in this case came from Stephen Ubl, president of the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed; Washington), the most thought-provoking from management guru Jim Collins.

With little preamble, Ubl turned to what AdvaMed focuses on most: government policy and governmental rule-making, touching immediately on what might, or might not, drive the next alteration in U.S. healthcare policy, along the way referring to Medicare as the “600-pound gorilla becoming the 700-, 800-, 900-pound gorilla” in the room.

While he said healthcare appears to be at the top of the roster of election-year concerns for the American public, he described the gaggle of Democrat and Republican presidential candidates as clearly differentiated on this issue as they go about the country on the current campaign marathon, from debates to pop-in visits to rural diners where they think the typical voter congregates.

He described the field of Democratic candidates as having a “homogeneous view” of proposed healthcare reform, in general seeking a combination of broader governmental coverage with the use of subsidies for purchase of private health insurance — and with the private sector, he said, likely to complain of unfair advantage by public insurance plans in this competition.

On the GOP side, he put healthcare reform “three, four or five, down the list in terms of priorities,” suggesting little action by one of those aspirants, if elected.

Pointing, however, to the growing awareness that two-thirds of healthcare costs go to treating chronic diseases, Ubl said that “the presidential candidates seem to be getting this.”

For the attendees, Ubl reviewed the blueprint that AdvaMed has developed for pushing improvements – Okay, let’s call it reform – in U.S. healthcare:

an emphasis on disease prevention and “what works” in preventive healthcare;

an emphasis on improving the quality care, with Ubl commenting on research indicating that “50% of the time patients don’t receive standard-of-care”;

an emphasis on greater efficiency in delivery of care, primarily with the use of “ehealth” technologies;

an emphasis on research, particularly the kind that “stimulates policy.”

Following his presentation, Ubl told Medical Device Daily that the association’s reform recommendations – and the view of its med-tech membership — want the provision of healthcare coverage for all Americans, generally structured along the lines of the Massachusetts plan and the use of a “sliding scale” to pay for health insurance.

Questioned by an attendee concerning the apparent pressure for post-market surveillance of medical technologies, Ubl provided no answer as to how heavily this will play into any future regulatory policies but that it is “clearly going to be a more robust part of the conversation.”

While Ubl’s comments probably offered no surprises to the conference’s med-tech attendees, Jim Collins — best known for his analysis of how companies move from “good to great” — certainly gave them more to consider in terms of management priorities and style.

Collins emphasizes “discipline” and “power” as the attributes that move companies to the highest levels of success.

A Colorado native and a rock climber, Collins peppered his presentations with metaphors from the outdoors.

And one of these is the hike — the very long hike.

Most importantly, he says, the key to making a company great is the discipline to march “20 miles a day,” every day, on that hike, no matter what the weather or outside circumstances and avoiding the excuses to take a rest, because it’s too hot or too cold or too rainy and promising to do 40 miles tomorrow.

This, he says, is the discipline needed for execution, and promising what you can do and then doing it, rather than over-promising and failing to execute.

Perhaps most surprising to an entrepreneurial audience, Collins is direct in downplaying the role of innovation along the path to the “great” status for a good company.

He says that while innovation is necessary to create and make a good company, it is not what drives a company up the ladder to excellence.

Rather, he emphasizes a company’s ability to stick to what it does best, and not being distracted by pursuing constant innovation or “irrelevance,” and always committing itself to the daily 20-mile march.

So what about a Johnson & Johnson (J&J; New Brunswick, New Jersey)? MDD asked Collins, a company that is obviously widely diversified, not focused on any one core area of healthcare or medical technology.

Collins said that J&J has mastered the practice of decentralizing its operations while requiring that each of these operations maintains adherence to the company’s essential “credo.”

Another point Collins makes — and probably having some of the middle managers likely to do some second-guessing of their bosses when they get back to their offices — is the essential quality of the very best bosses — which he describes as “level 5” managers.

“Humility,” Collins says — and for his med-tech audience, he noted, this translates not to making money but to pursuing the essential healthcare goal of battling, and staving off, disease.