Taewoong Medical’s R&D Saves Lives

It is no surprise that in the past 10 years, Korean companies have risen to become market leaders in consumer electronics, information technology, autos and biotechnology. Many pundits say that these achievements are a result of the tendancy of Korean companies to focus on research and development, which gives their products a competitive edge. As a recent CNBC report put it, “One reason for Korea’s shine is a decision by many of its companies to fund research and development, even when times are tough.”

Taewoong Medical is leading the medical device industry in terms of research. This has helped it to continually come up with high-quality medical devices like customized stents for many different passages in the body and many different purposes.

Picture Description: Magazine advertisement for “Gastrointestinal Endoscopy”

The company puts a lot of effort into R&D to develop products that doctors like and that are best-suited for individual patients’ conditions. The company has three R&D teams that specialize in different products such as stents and interventional radiology. This ensures the medical researchers have a high level of expertise in their field. At Taewoong, R&D employees make up more than 20 percent of the workforce.

Picture Description: “Taewoong Niti-S™ D colonic stent”

Taewoong’s approach to developing new medical devices is somewhat different from the industry standard. To develop a stent, the company constantly researches industry trends, medical breakthroughs and, of course, competitors’ developments. They go beyond these standard practices though in their quest to make devices that save more lives.

Picture Description: Taewoong Medical’s booth at “Digestive Disease Week 2012” San Diego, USA

All the employees in local sales offices maintain tight relationships with doctors and hold meetings and conferences to get a better idea of what types of stents doctors need to do their jobs more effectively. The sales employees ask specific questions about how to improve current products and deliver those insights to the development team.

As Taewoong Medical exports products globally, the sales employees also travel to other countries to learn about the needs for different types of products in different countries. These ongoing R&D efforts in have enabled Taewoong Medical to gain top market share in Japan and Italy.

The pictures below illustrate Taewoong’s eight-step development process, which focuses on the end result for doctors and patients.

Impressed? For those interested to know more about Taewoong Medical, please visit their website! http://www.stent.net/