It makes sense that the customers for medical device companies would be hospitals/doctors and not actual patients. Companies need to sell their products in bulk and that isn’t really a possibility when it comes to single patients (just how many hip replacements does a person really get in one lifetime?). Therefore, it really doesn’t make sense to care too much about each individual patient. In addition, patients speak directly with their doctors and any relevant feedback is directly relayed by the doctors to the companies, making the process a lot faster and singular, versus medical device companies having to deal with thousands of individuals.