Healthcare Economics: Demand for Innovation

 A healthcare innovation can offer meaningful clinical benefits and still struggle to gain adoption. Providers must consider patient outcomes, staffing, workflow and financial sustainability. Payers evaluate coverage, reimbursement and utilization. Patients weigh affordability, access and trust. Investors need a credible path to growth and returns.

SMG brings these perspectives together to help organizations understand who benefits, who decides, who pays—and what each needs to move forward.

Experience Across the Decision Table

As Senior Vice President of Healthcare Economics at Kimberly-Clark, David worked across commercial, clinical, finance, legal and marketing functions to understand how payment models and purchasing priorities influenced healthcare decisions.

That experience complements leadership roles spanning institutional pharmacy, medical and surgical devices, laboratory diagnostics and longevity. It provides a practical foundation for evaluating both the clinical purpose of an offering and the economics required to support its adoption.

Building the Business Case

A strong value proposition must explain more than what a product or service does. It must establish why it matters to the people evaluating, purchasing and using it.

SMG helps organizations connect clinical evidence with operating requirements, financial assumptions and customer priorities. Depending on the opportunity, that can include reimbursement considerations, cash-pay pricing, workflow impact, market positioning and the resources needed to deliver the service.

Value may involve better outcomes, fewer complications, greater efficiency, improved access or lower total costs. The task is to identify which benefits matter, to whom, and how they can be demonstrated.

From Clinical Promise to Commercial Execution

SMG’s work extends from evaluating an opportunity to building the business around it. We help leadership teams define markets, develop partnerships, prepare for capital discussions and establish plans for revenue growth and profitability.

Experience in large public companies and entrepreneurial businesses—including leadership roles in three companies later acquired for more than $400 million combined—informs that work. We understand how early commercial decisions can influence a company’s ability to grow, scale and prepare for an eventual exit.

The Practice of Medicine vs. The Business of Medicine

David explores this intersection in The Practice of Medicine vs. The Business of Medicine. The book examines the challenge of translating clinical purpose into a business that can deliver, sustain and expand its value.

 Innovation begins with a possibility—a better way to diagnose, treat, prevent or deliver care. Turning that possibility into a viable business requires understanding the problem being solved, the evidence supporting the solution and the people expected to adopt and pay for it.

SMG was founded to help early- and mid-stage healthcare companies identify, evaluate and commercialize those opportunities. We work with founders and leadership teams to challenge assumptions, assess market needs and connect technical capabilities with a credible business model.

The Right Questions Before the Next Investment

Does the innovation address a meaningful unmet need? How does it compare with existing alternatives? What clinical evidence and regulatory considerations influence its use? Who makes the purchasing decision, and will payment come through reimbursement, an employer or the consumer?

These questions help establish priorities before organizations commit additional capital, expand operations or enter new markets.

Building a Path to Adoption and Growth

SMG brings experience across product positioning, strategic partnerships, commercial planning and operational execution. We help teams translate complex technology into understandable value, identify barriers to adoption and align resources around practical milestones.

For entrepreneurial companies, that can mean building the structure needed to grow. For established organizations, it can mean evaluating a new offering, partnership or acquisition opportunity. The goal is to connect innovation with adoption, revenue and a business capable of sustaining its value.