Accelerating the adoption of a new way of treating a 70-year-old problem

Background

Vascular surgeons have been treating carotid artery disease the same way for 70+ years:  with invasive, scalpel-based surgery (CEA). They know how to perform the procedure. They know what to expect from the outcomes.  They can advise their patients on the likely side-effects and risks. The most likely and devastating of which is stroke. But Silk Road Medical innovated a meaningfully better way for vascular surgeons to address carotid artery disease while reducing the risk of stroke AND significantly reducing the impact of so many of the other side-effects associated with CEA. Introducing TCAR.

The brief

Vascular surgeons have been performing CEA for 70+ years and don’t see a compelling reason to change that behavior. What’s more, patients rarely challenge the advice of their surgeon and have not historically been aware of a safer, less invasive alternative to CEA. The challenge for UP to help Silk Road Medical accelerate adoption of TCAR, a new vascular procedure (and suite of associated medical devices).

The solution

Vascular surgeons rest their reputations on providing the best patient outcome and there are fewer worse or more devastating outcomes than that of stroke. UP's strategy was to take a two-pronged approach, aimed at vascular surgeons and patients/caregivers that clearly provokes both the emotional and rational reasons that TCAR should be considered as part of a surgeons practice or as a part of a conversation with a patient.