I’ve often said, a bit glibly, that in the service business we don’t save lives, we save PDFs. It’s a line meant to put people at ease. But when you work in the medtech space, you start to realize that the work does have a real and meaningful impact on people’s lives.

The team hit the road and headed down to NANS 2026, the annual meeting of the North American Neuromodulation Society, to reconnect with some of our current clients and to speak with others who are navigating similar challenges.

Many of those conversations centered on patient access portals, prior authorization systems, and, at the core, making it easier for clinicians to help people. The systems we build often sit quietly in the background, but when they work well, they remove friction from care. When they don’t, that friction shows up exactly where it matters most.

Attending conferences isn’t just an opportunity to generate business. We connect as a community, listen to experts advocate, and remind ourselves that the work we do every day changes other people’s lives.

Advocacy Happens in the Details

While at NANS, we were fortunate to hear Dr. Usman Latif speak about the challenges around patient approvals and the level of real advocacy required to secure them. The conversation between SPR’s Todd Davis and Dr. Latif highlighted that the challenge is not simply a matter of clinical need. It often requires persistent advocacy and coordination to move an approval forward, even after an initial denial.

That advocacy is built on a foundation of patient data and clinical records, the same kind of information we see every day in our medtech clients’ systems. When those systems are set up correctly, advocacy becomes easier.

When we improve a workflow in Salesforce or build a new dashboard, we are reducing toil and giving clinicians and patient access teams more time to focus on what actually matters: helping people get the care they need.

The Systems Behind the Care

NANS was a reminder that the work behind the scenes matters. The portals, approvals, integrations, and dashboards may not be visible to the patient, but they shape the speed, clarity, and success of the care journey.

Complex access programs demand reliable data, clear workflows, and systems that support the people using them every day. When those foundations are in place, organizations move faster, approvals become smoother, and patient outcomes improve.

A Conversation Worth Having

If you are building or scaling patient access programs, modernizing legacy systems, or trying to remove friction from the approval process, we would be glad to compare notes. These problems are complex, but they are also solvable with the right foundations in place.

Because sometimes the PDFs really do matter. And sometimes, getting them right is part of getting someone the care they need.

If you are looking for help, you can book time with our team here: Book a Call