16th January - Valencia.

According to consultants Accenture, current trends in Medical Technology R&D are not cutting the mustard in healthcare provision.

In a world that has ever increasing challenges through exploding population growth, an ageing population and inadequate access to quality healthcare, R&D will no longer be good enough to just make incremental changes. New Medical Devices will need to completely reinvent how healthcare is delivered to bring new value for patients and suppliers through:

• Lowering healthcare costs
• Enhancing quality of care
• Personalising care for patients
• Making it easy for healthcare consumers as well as physicians, nurses, and technicians to use the devices available to them
• Sweetening the odds that devices in development can be handed in for regulatory approval

They argue next-generation medical devices will be designed and developed “from the outside in” with users’ needs and experiences top of mind for R&D teams—not only “from the inside out,” with scientific advancements in product components as the primary focus.

The human-centric approach is one that is beginning to be used for new medical devices. Companies such as Design Partners are investing in how engagement and interaction can be made outside of the clinical environment to the home through wearable devices attuned to patient needs.

While the ‘wearable’ sector is one area where human centricity is having a bearing on new product innovation, at the forefront Digital Transformation is revolutionising the way healthcare is being delivered and consumed. Factors such as growth in on-demand processes, mobile medicine and the implications of 5G will mean healthcare becomes more accessible, immediate and interactive; key ingredients for a bright future.

Good reason then, that in a recent study by Research and Markets, allowing for ongoing IOT transformations and growing preference for real time monitoring, the wearable market (including devices, connectivity, product, application and distribution) is predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.78% over the forecast period of 2020-2027, and is projected to touch USD 60.4 million in revenue by 2027. The largest growth is likely to be in the mobile and wearable device sector, closely followed by home health applications and sports & fitness aided by a growing awareness towards chronic disease, health improvement and appeal in living a healthy lifestyle.

Whilst some governments and Medical Technology R&D companies continue to struggle to offer a breakthrough and visionary ways to supply medical device and healthcare provision, the marketplace is being transformed. There is a clear direction being linked to human need and the ability to access and monitor healthcare through devices on-demand, where and when necessary.

One of the biggest challenges for Medical Electronics companies in this space is access to quality engineers with highly specialised safety critical engineering experience. The demand for software and system engineers with these skills has increased dramatically in recent years and is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Not only do companies need to get their product strategy right, but they also need access to top level engineers and consultants in the medical device and IOT space in order to get first to market. This is proving to be a major headache for project and R&D managers across the globe.

Here at CIS, we have a strong track record of delivering highly specialised expertise to companies in the Medical Device and IOT sector over many years. We have a wide range of talent solutions available to assist companies to meet all potential skills demands in this sector, no matter how specialised the tasks might be.

For more information, contact Mark Cronin: mcronin@cis-ee.com or visit CIS Electronics Engineering website at www.cis-ee.com.