Medical technology company ARTIDIS has developed the world’s first nanotechnology platform for tissue analysis, empowering much faster cancer diagnosis and personalised treatment optimisation. ARTIDIS can diagnose cancer in under three hours, detect its aggressiveness, and enable personalised treatment planning based on nanomechanical biomarkers. 

As an early-stage start-up, ARTIDIS approached merakoi for patient-led market research to guide the commercialisation and go-to-market strategies for this ground-breaking diagnostic device for breast cancer. The team needed support to develop an effective business model, starting from the perspective of the end-user to understand how this device added value for patients.

Patient-led market research reveals the true drivers of patient behaviour change

Traditional healthcare market research has profound flaws that limit the depth and richness of insights. It’s impersonal, anonymous, and often misses what’s most important because it’s detached from the people who matter most. 

merakoi patient-led market research is different because it’s fundamentally driven by patients. merakoi patient market research is designed, conducted, and moderated by trained patient experts – who combine personal disease-specific experience with relevant professional experience.

For ARTIDIS, our patient expert Marie Ennis O’Connor spearheaded the project, working alongside a seasoned merakoi strategist with nearly 20 years’ experience in patient market research. Marie is a professional communications specialist with over 15 years’ experience consulting with industry and patient advocacy, and a breast cancer survivor. Marie is also certified in market research by the BHBIA.

merakoi consulted with ARTIDIS to design a market research methodology, validate research objectives and gather input for discussion guides and bespoke training material. Marie validated these materials to ensure they were sensitive, empathetic, and compassionate.

We then recruited a diverse group of 20 patients across multiple geographies who had undergone a breast cancer biopsy within two years. This group included both patients who had received a positive and a negative diagnosis, to gather a full spectrum of insights. 

Marie led one-to-one interviews to learn about patients’ journeys, pain points, and experiences throughout diagnosis and understand how they felt about the ARTIDIS proposition. Then she moderated a focus group with around ten of these patients, to gather richer insights, tease out nuances, and interrogate more deeply the true drivers of patient behaviour change. 

We presented our findings and analyses in a comprehensive written report as well as through agile, continuous collaboration between ARTIDIS and merakoi throughout the project.

A pioneering device fulfils its potential to change patients’ lives.  

Marie’s personal experiences with breast cancer empowered a much richer, more vulnerable series of conversations than traditional market research could have yielded.

Ultimately, merakoi’s patient-led market research revealed that an early assumption about ARTIDIS’ product value proposition was incorrect. Instead, we uncovered a USP that resonated more strongly with patients, to differentiate ARTIDIS and guide their commercialisation and go-to-market strategies. 

merakoi continues to partner with ARTIDIS to hone their proposition, refine their go-to-market strategies and ensure successful commercialisation of a life-changing device. 

ARTIDIS’ mission is to lessen the burden and deliver confidence to patients and clinicians by redefining how cancer is diagnosed and treatment is planned. Their ongoing partnership with merakoi is instrumental in realising that goal.