Defining how a breakthrough neuromodulation technology reaches patients: the funnel, the partners, the pathways, and how it gets paid for

Abstract
Focused ultrasound can modulate the brain without surgery, but a breakthrough modality does not find its patients on its own.

Sanmai Technologies, building precision ultrasonic neuromodulation for mental health, needed to understand a world its technology team did not have time to map: where patients with anxiety and depression actually enter care, who guides them, and what determines whether a new therapy becomes part of the system or stays outside it.

Approach
Mapped the mental health care ecosystem end to end, from first symptom to sustained treatment, identifying every actor a patient encounters and every point where a new modality could enter the journey.

Built the mental health patient funnel and traced how patients move down it, from awareness through screening, referral, treatment, and follow-up.

Identified and defined the healthcare ecosystem partners across the funnel, mapped the reimbursement touchpoints that determine commercial viability, and translated the findings into the product requirements conversation, connecting indications and procedures to the workflows and pathways they depend on.

Outcome
Fully defined partner, patient, and proprietary pathways for bringing ultrasonic neuromodulation to market, giving the team a shared picture of how their technology gets used, by whom, and how it gets paid for.

The work gave a deep technology company a commercial map it could act on: which ecosystem partnerships to pursue, where reimbursement had to be engaged, and how the patient funnel shapes product priorities.

In collaboration with Sanmai Technologies

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