Design of medical diagnostics products: A case-study of a saliva diagnostics kit

This paper applies a recently proposed procedure for product design [Bagajewicz, M. (2007). On the role of microeconomics, multi-scale planning and finances in product design. AIChE Journal, 53 (12),3155-3170] to the design of a medical diagnostics device. The case selected is a saliva diagnostic kit to detect kidney disease, with targeted consumers of doctors, hospitals and clinics. The procedure proposes to make a connection between consumer preferences in different markets to the characteristics of the product. The procedure includes a price-demand model and maximizes the profit by simultaneously changing product characteristics and product price. A consumer preference model based on the kit performance as a function of its design was developed to assess consumer choices. The best product from the consumer point of view turns out not to be the most profitable. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.