IMHO "Make something people want" implies that people will want to pay you for it[1]. If people want it, they'll come asking you to take their money - if their response is "meh, I'd try it for free" then I'd argue it's misleading to tell that they want it, the most you could say is that they are interested. I mean, he demoed this stuff to people and none of them seemed to say "wait, can you give me access to this right now? Pretty please, I'll be your pilot test user, but I want to have this?" - I can't see any evidence that would justify the author claims "Consumers wanted it, doctors wanted it". The doctors called it "What a fun project!", the doctors called it "useful", but none of them wanted it the way they might want a cup of coffee i.e. being willing to give something at all to get the thing they want.
[1] the other limitation is whether they can afford to pay you despite wanting it; there are products/markets where the target audience is eager to pay but their collective budget is too small for the scale you need.