Medical Design Briefs - February 2021 - 14

Technology Trends
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are developing new ways to monitor and
collect data on patient health in realtime, " says Martensen.
Data management and access will be
critical to decentralizing diagnostics, adds
Hanna. " There already are niche applications for managing confidential financial
and other health information, and we will
see an IT segment develop around test
results. IoT and connected devices will
play critical roles in expanding diagnostics
access to the consumer and making both
tests and results easier to access globally. "
He adds that there will be a consolidation of features and functionality in solutions that deliver this greater diagnostics
connectivity. " As with most technologies,
we will start with many competing platforms and then see consolidation to a
few. It will be similar to choosing whether
to have Amazon's Alexa, Google Home,
or Apple's Siri. Users will have one home
health standard, and all their diagnostic
devices and data will flow through that
platform, " says Hanna.
Warren says he sees IoT's role in medical technology being all about the generation of data, and ultimately harnessing
and analyzing all that data to predict better patient outcomes and prevent down
time of mission critical equipment within
the healthcare environment. However,
one area of concern with IoT devices in a
healthcare setting is security. " As healthcare embraces IoT, that increases the
chances of attack from an outside threat
or a ransomware attack. Luckily, medical
device manufacturers and software developers are continually developing new
ways to prevent these types of situations
from happening, " he says.
AR, VR, and Increased
Collaboration
In medical device development, it's
critical to have constant communication
between OEMs, partners, and suppliers.
The COVID-19 pandemic led many
companies to step up collaboration to
drive innovation and get products to
market more quickly. Tools such as augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR)
emerged to help these efforts, and they
will likely be part of the product development process in 2021 and beyond.
" A trend that will have a dramatic
impact on the future development of
medical technology is the cross collaboration of multiple companies to create
new product offerings. The lines are
blurring between hardware and software
vendors as customers are looking for

alliances, we will see consolidation in the
industry as companies cement their collaborative partnerships, " predicts Hanna.

Glooko's remote patient monitoring platform
provides diabetes data used in telehealth visits.
(Credit: Glooko)

multiple vendors to come together to
provide the best solution for their clinicians and patients, " says Warren.
He adds that Lenovo is starting to see
customers embrace technologies like
AR/VR to help facilitate a higher quality
of collaboration and training versus a
traditional video webinar. " With VR,
healthcare workers are able to train and
prepare for real-world events all while
being in a remote location, " says
Warren. " VR has been proven to increase trainee engagement and knowledge retention when compared to traditional training environments, while also
reducing training time and cost in the
process. VR hardware and software companies also have built-in tracking and
analytics, which allows institutions to
produce a more proficient workforce. "
Large medical device manufacturers
are global companies and have employees based around the world. Augmented
and virtual reality technology can help
them collaborate in real time as they
develop the next generation of medical
technology, he says.
Some collaborations have benefitted
everyone as device companies and healthcare developers have focused on core
competencies, allowing new solutions to
advance quickly. " These synergies will
develop further as companies continue to
explore new technologies in 2021. But
after a period of high growth and close

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Cov

ToC

Biosensors and Wearables
Biosensors have emerged as a key
technology because of their potential
analytical tools used for the detection of
an analytic with the assistance of a physiochemical detector, both in wearables
and POC diagnostics. According to a
report by Market Research Engines,
although traditional laboratory techniques yield correct measurements,
these area unit extraordinarily timeconsuming, complex, expensive and
need pre-treatment of the biological
sample. By contrast, biosensor-based
devices give speedy, on-site and time
period watching while not the requirement for sample preparation.
In wearables, these biosensors will see
increased use in continuous health monitoring, with the wireless sensors enclosed
in bandages or patches or in a body-worn
form factor. Biosensors predict the possibility of a patient's worsening clinical condition and also monitor the impact of
needed clinical interventions. Sweat,
blood, and other biological agents are
common analytes that are analyzed.
" I'd say that the largest role that the
pandemic has had in this sector has
been the acceleration of some technologies. There has never been a greater
need for POC and connected devices
than there is today as the world grapples
with a predominantly digital environment. Overall, the digital transformation going on today will only enhance
progress in the medical device industry
in the future, " says Martensen.
There is no question that COVID-19 has
propelled rapid technology advancement
and rapid regulatory approval of technologies such as wearables, POC diagnostics,
and digital health. " We need these factors
to continue beyond COVID-19 and foster
the emergence of more essential healthcare solutions, governed by a regulatory
establishment that welcomes and supports
continuous innovation, " says Hanna.
References
1. " Use and Content of Primary Care OfficeBased vs Telemedicine Care Visits During
the COVID-19 Pandemic in the US, " JAMA
Network Open, 2 Oct. 2020.
2. IQVIA Q2 earnings call, 2020.

This article was written by Sherrie Trigg,
Editor and Director of Medical Content for
Medical Design Briefs. She can be reached at
strigg@techbriefs.com.
Medical Design Briefs, February 2021

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Medical Design Briefs - February 2021

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