Is more technology really better?

I'm struggling a little with how to phrase this, so I'm just going to write and see how it goes...

Lately I've been noticing what I find to be an interesting dilemma for many specialists. As we develop technology, we talk about how it will improve someone's life. For a cardiologist, we are able to use CT to do a basic coronary analysis without an invasive procedure and rule out many patients that they would otherwise have to take to the cath lab. For the gastroenterologist, we are proposing the same thing with virtual colonoscopy.

The marketing pitch is easy, right? We tell the physicians this will make your life easier. You don't have to worry yourself with the routine procedures. You can get more patients through. Life is good. Or is it?

As a cardiologist or a gastroenterologist, yeah, it's great to have the challenging cases that allow you to stretch your thinking, perform an amazing procedure, and live up to the lofty views. But, it's the routine that puts the money in the pocket. A routine colonoscopy with no complications can take 30 minutes or so, and put 2-3x more money into the GIs pocket. Same with a routine angio. And, these are less likely to be met with complications, stress, etc.

When positioning to these customers, it is important to keep this in mind. As marketers, we want to tout all the time saving, risk saving that these cool and great technologies offer the physician and ultimately the patient. But it's also important to remember that we need to show them how to build a business around these new technologies. We need to become more consultative. For the GI guy, it's about helping him set up a practice that will allow him to boost screening by using virtual, which will in turn keep enough people coming through the door to keep the endoscopy suite packed. The same goes for helping the cardiologist get her practice established.

Ultimately, it's about helping them first embrace the technology as something to help them grow, showing them how to attract more patients/referrals, and really differentiating themselves from all of the other practices out there by truly catering to the different needs and desires of the end customer, the patient.