The latest developments in medical technologies — including the use of artificial intelligence, telehealth, integrated technologies, and data intelligence — are geared toward improving patient engagement. Clinical precision medicine, which includes leveraging the individual patient’s data, connecting the patient with their provider, and then leveraging AI or machine learning in a way that will help drive behavior change specific to the individual is one example of how this trend is taking shape. In addition, next-generation telehealth platforms can increase overall satisfaction through seamless integration with other patient engagement tools, automation of administrative workflows, and dedication to continuous updates.

Surgical navigation systems of the future combine the power of light field technology with computer vision, data intelligence, and real-time anatomical alignment calculations to ensure that surgeons can make the most informed decisions in the operating room. This article explores these and other trends and how manufacturers can accommodate for evolving technology and customer demands.

HOW DIGITAL HEALTH IS EVOLVING

While many wearable technologies began as a way to help people improve fitness, they have evolved to take on much greater diagnostic and other medical uses. According to market research firm Global Data, the wearable tech industry is currently worth nearly $54 billion.¹

“Digital health products like sensors, wearables, and remote patient monitoring provide the infrastructure that is at the heart of connected care, which is a big part of what our company does — better connecting patients and their key data with their healthcare providers, who — as a result — are able to provide better and more timely treatment recommendations,” says Russ Johannesson, CEO of Glooko, Palo Alto, CA.

Johannesson says that how these digital health products will evolve moving forward depends on growing areas like digital therapeutics and digital clinical research that require these products and what these arenas will demand from the products in the future. The digital therapeutics market exceeded a valuation of $6.5 billion in 2022 and is estimated to expand at 31.5 percent CAGR from 2023 to 2032, driven by growing prominence of chronic ailments, according to Global Market Insights.²

“I think, in general, there will continue to be an increasing demand for connected care and remote monitoring, and what will help this is the steadily growing weight of clinical evidence demonstrating that better connected care between patients and providers leads to better health outcomes,” he says.

“However, practically speaking, we expect that the actual adoption of technologies like remote monitoring may happen at a more deliberate pace rather than the more accelerated speed much of industry had hoped for. And what we’ve seen in our work is that it all comes down to having the things in place providers need to help them make the actual leap to remote monitoring adoption,” says Johannesson.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has taken a range of administrative steps to expedite the adoption and awareness of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. While many telehealth flexibilities are temporary for Medicare recipients, the advances took hold and will continue to impact healthcare delivery.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the pace of change in healthcare and has drastically increased the adoption of digital health products of all kinds,” says Stuart Long, CEO of InfoBionic, Chelmsford, MA. “With the uptick in virtual health, we are seeing broader adoption of these tools than ever before, as more and more care takes place beyond the healthcare provider’s four walls.”

“While just a few years ago these tools were considered novel, remote monitoring, sensors, and other [mobile health] products are now at a different place on the digital adoption curve. Providers that embrace these tools are no longer early adopters — they are part of a digital majority.”

Long says that as these tools become mainstream, industry is seeing “an uptick in their level of medical sophistication — and the level of acuity with which they can report on a wide variety of indicators. We also see an increase in their level of convenience for the patient, who must be a willing participant to realize their full potential. Finally, we are seeing a tighter integration between these tools and the healthcare environment. The ultimate example of this is the fourth major ward of the hospital that continues to take shape: the virtual care unit,” says Long.

While adopting new technologies isn’t always easy, it may be imperative.

Dr. Lisa Anderson, CEO and co-founder, Paragonix Technologies

“As much as this has been a very rapidly evolving area in medtech over the past few years, I expect we will see a big push to accelerate new solutions. In a world where anyone can track their Uber Eats order or Amazon packages or monitor just about any aspect of their home remotely, it’s surprising how little advancement has been made in the medtech arena,” says Dr. Lisa Anderson, CEO and co-founder of Paragonix Technologies, Cambridge, MA.

“I think many device companies have struggled to adapt to the pace of rapid advancements in consumer mobile technologies. But when personal apps have become so advanced, it is imperative for us in the medical community to leverage the best that’s out there to improve patient care. I see this trend growing in the organ transportation community especially, where there has been a rising demand to acknowledge and overcome the lack of continuous oversight for donor organs. In recent months, surgical teams and even the U.S. senate have begun to seek more advanced ways to reliably monitor and track donor organs during transit in real-time.”

DIGITAL THERAPEUTICS

While technologies ranging from wearables to digital sensors are a central part of the digital transformation of healthcare, a focus on emerging fields such as digital therapeutics will be a main driver in 2023.

“What will drive the advances are the demands of rapidly growing fields like digital therapeutics and clinical research,” says Johannesson. “For instance, with research, we’re seeing an increasing demand from clinical research organizations and pharma companies for both retrospective studies — which leverage our aggregated, de-identified sets of real-world data — as well as clinical trials, which use digital technologies for in-person as well as virtual trials. As the demands for digitally driven research grow, more will be asked from the remote monitoring, sensors, and wearables that facilitate the collection of the data that power their research,” he says.

As to digital therapeutics, Johannesson says there is a “huge thirst” for digital solutions from the pharma and medical device companies that create therapies that treat the range of medical conditions. “These companies are asking us to create digital therapeutics solutions that will help them not only onboard patients but also help them drive patient adherence to their therapies,” he says. “And once again, it’s the digital infrastructure of remote monitoring, wearables, and sensors that facilitates the data collection required by digital therapeutics, so it’s only natural that this growing field will drive advances in these products.”

And as the COVID-19 pandemic drove the critical need for cutting-edge technological tools and innovation in the areas of public health, medicine, and wellness, it began to drive the big data healthcare market over the pandemic phase, according to a report from Mordor Intelligence, noting that several companies are engaged in utilizing big data for analyzing patient data and outcomes in order to better understand diagnosis and treatment prospects.

The latest developments in medical technologies — including the use of artificial intelligence, telehealth, integrated technologies, and data intelligence — are geared toward improving patient engagement. Clinical precision medicine, which includes leveraging the individual patient’s data, connecting the patient with their provider, and then leveraging AI or machine learning in a way that will help drive behavior change specific to the individual is one example of how this trend is taking shape. In addition, next-generation telehealth platforms can increase overall satisfaction through seamless integration with other patient engagement tools, automation of administrative workflows, and dedication to continuous updates.

Surgical navigation systems of the future combine the power of light field technology with computer vision, data intelligence, and real-time anatomical alignment calculations to ensure that surgeons can make the most informed decisions in the operating room. This article explores these and other trends and how manufacturers can accommodate for evolving technology and customer demands.

HOW DIGITAL HEALTH IS EVOLVING

While many wearable technologies began as a way to help people improve fitness, they have evolved to take on much greater diagnostic and other medical uses. According to market research firm Global Data, the wearable tech industry is currently worth nearly $54 billion.¹

“Digital health products like sensors, wearables, and remote patient monitoring provide the infrastructure that is at the heart of connected care, which is a big part of what our company does — better connecting patients and their key data with their healthcare providers, who — as a result — are able to provide better and more timely treatment recommendations,” says Russ Johannesson, CEO of Glooko, Palo Alto, CA.

Johannesson says that how these digital health products will evolve moving forward depends on growing areas like digital therapeutics and digital clinical research that require these products and what these arenas will demand from the products in the future. The digital therapeutics market exceeded a valuation of $6.5 billion in 2022 and is estimated to expand at 31.5 percent CAGR from 2023 to 2032, driven by growing prominence of chronic ailments, according to Global Market Insights.²

“I think, in general, there will continue to be an increasing demand for connected care and remote monitoring, and what will help this is the steadily growing weight of clinical evidence demonstrating that better connected care between patients and providers leads to better health outcomes,” he says.

“However, practically speaking, we expect that the actual adoption of technologies like remote monitoring may happen at a more deliberate pace rather than the more accelerated speed much of industry had hoped for. And what we’ve seen in our work is that it all comes down to having the things in place providers need to help them make the actual leap to remote monitoring adoption,” says Johannesson.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has taken a range of administrative steps to expedite the adoption and awareness of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. While many telehealth flexibilities are temporary for Medicare recipients, the advances took hold and will continue to impact healthcare delivery.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the pace of change in healthcare and has drastically increased the adoption of digital health products of all kinds,” says Stuart Long, CEO of InfoBionic, Chelmsford, MA. “With the uptick in virtual health, we are seeing broader adoption of these tools than ever before, as more and more care takes place beyond the healthcare provider’s four walls.”

“While just a few years ago these tools were considered novel, remote monitoring, sensors, and other [mobile health] products are now at a different place on the digital adoption curve. Providers that embrace these tools are no longer early adopters — they are part of a digital majority.”

Long says that as these tools become mainstream, industry is seeing “an uptick in their level of medical sophistication — and the level of acuity with which they can report on a wide variety of indicators. We also see an increase in their level of convenience for the patient, who must be a willing participant to realize their full potential. Finally, we are seeing a tighter integration between these tools and the healthcare environment. The ultimate example of this is the fourth major ward of the hospital that continues to take shape: the virtual care unit,” says Long.

While adopting new technologies isn’t always easy, it may be imperative.

“As much as this has been a very rapidly evolving area in medtech over the past few years, I expect we will see a big push to accelerate new solutions. In a world where anyone can track their Uber Eats order or Amazon packages or monitor just about any aspect of their home remotely, it’s surprising how little advancement has been made in the medtech arena,” says Dr. Lisa Anderson, CEO and co-founder of Paragonix Technologies, Cambridge, MA.

“I think many device companies have struggled to adapt to the pace of rapid advancements in consumer mobile technologies. But when personal apps have become so advanced, it is imperative for us in the medical community to leverage the best that’s out there to improve patient care. I see this trend growing in the organ transportation community especially, where there has been a rising demand to acknowledge and overcome the lack of continuous oversight for donor organs. In recent months, surgical teams and even the U.S. senate have begun to seek more advanced ways to reliably monitor and track donor organs during transit in real-time.”

DIGITAL THERAPEUTICS

While technologies ranging from wearables to digital sensors are a central part of the digital transformation of healthcare, a focus on emerging fields such as digital therapeutics will be a main driver in 2023.

“What will drive the advances are the demands of rapidly growing fields like digital therapeutics and clinical research,” says Johannesson. “For instance, with research, we’re seeing an increasing demand from clinical research organizations and pharma companies for both retrospective studies — which leverage our aggregated, de-identified sets of real-world data — as well as clinical trials, which use digital technologies for in-person as well as virtual trials. As the demands for digitally driven research grow, more will be asked from the remote monitoring, sensors, and wearables that facilitate the collection of the data that power their research,” he says.

As to digital therapeutics, Johannesson says there is a “huge thirst” for digital solutions from the pharma and medical device companies that create therapies that treat the range of medical conditions. “These companies are asking us to create digital therapeutics solutions that will help them not only onboard patients but also help them drive patient adherence to their therapies,” he says. “And once again, it’s the digital infrastructure of remote monitoring, wearables, and sensors that facilitates the data collection required by digital therapeutics, so it’s only natural that this growing field will drive advances in these products.”

And as the COVID-19 pandemic drove the critical need for cutting-edge technological tools and innovation in the areas of public health, medicine, and wellness, it began to drive the big data healthcare market over the pandemic phase, according to a report from Mordor Intelligence, noting that several companies are engaged in utilizing big data for analyzing patient data and outcomes in order to better understand diagnosis and treatment prospects.^3,4

Long notes that technologies like IoT, big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, digital twins, and other key tech enablers are continually driving advances in digital health products.

“Adoption of these exciting technologies will enable providers to make better decisions on patient care, informed by the most robust and reliable information possible. No matter the technology enabling digital health innovation, the common thread is data integrity — which continues to rise across digital health categories,” says Long.

Article Source: Medical Design Briefs