Medical Design Briefs - February 2021 - 11

Remote patient monitoring surged
after FDA issued a new guidance to help
expand the availability and capability of
noninvasive remote monitoring devices
in March 2020. An increased focus on
digital devices for remote use remain
part of the landscape in 2021.
" Home use devices and testing tools
are being seen as critical to the provision
of care, and as consumer confidence
brings an appreciation for the convenience of these products, there will be a
greater emphasis on their development, " says Danielle Bradnan, research
associate at Lux Research.
" If there's anything we've learned this
year, it's that the role of and demand for
technologies enabling remote patient
monitoring and remote patient care will
only increase, " says Russ Johannesson,
CEO of Glooko, which develops a platform for diabetes management. " For several years, there has been a push toward
connected medical devices and data
management solutions that enable
providers to work with patients remotely.

But often, the adoption of this technology has been led by defined segments of
healthcare professionals - either inherent technophiles, visionaries driven by
what the marriage of technology and
medicine offers, or those who've simply
had the opportunity to witness what new
medtech can do. Accordingly, the adoption of digital health and remote solutions has been increasing over the past
couple of decades at a rate that is steady,
but not booming, " he says.
" With onset of the global pandemic,
we've witnessed what happens when
demands beyond our control move the
reason for adopting technology from
what we know it can do to the necessities
of what we suddenly need it to do. The
drive we've seen to adopt remote technologies is unprecedented, and it
extends not only to patient care but also
to clinical research, " says Johannesson.
Technologies enabling virtual care are
expected to expand significantly. " Virtual
care is enabled by interoperability, artificial intelligence, and advanced analyt-

ics all coming together, " says Sonya
Denysenko, global digital health director
at Frost & Sullivan. " It is exciting to see
the growth opportunities and various
ecosystems and platforms that will be created between vendors and in partnerships to provide these services going forward. We believe that home health monitoring will continue to expand across
the healthcare continuum. "
Telehealth was deemed transformative during 2020 as it reduced disease
exposure for healthcare workers and
patients, preserved scarce supplies of
personal protective equipment, and
minimized a patient surge on facilities.
" In patient care, with the sudden need
to limit medical visits to only the most
essential due to safety, we saw primary
care office visits in the U.S. drop more
than 50 percent, from an average of
117.8 million visits per quarter in Q2 of
2018 and 2019 to just 58.7 million visits
in Q2 of this year, " adds Johannesson.
" By contrast, we witnessed telemedicine
increase from just 1.1 percent of primary

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