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.