Year: 2017-18

Company: Dexcom

Liaison(s): Katie Anthony, Aarthi Mahalingam, Neil Puri

Diabetes is a chronic disease affecting millions of people in the United States where recent improvements with medical devices such as continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) represents the next generation in health management for diabetic patients. The Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) recently approved Dexcom in August 2017 to provide CGM devices to the Medicare population in the United States, making their CGM device the only one of its kind to be reimbursed by Medicare. Therefore, Dexcom has an opportunity to reach an un-tapped group of Medicare customers, and understanding this patient population is crucial. The student team was tasked with conducting qualitative and quantitative research to serve as the basis for Dexcom’s marketing and user needs analyses as they enter into this niche in the market. Based on the emotions, motivations, values, and personalities expressed, we will describe segments of the diabetes market with emphasis on the Medicare population. We expect to find a series of common themes across patient experiences that will help Dexcom understand their consumer. The company can further expect the conclusions will provide insights into product sales, product retention and population healthcare outcomes aligning with Dexcom’s guiding principle of empowering the community to take control of diabetes.