More Than 10 out of the 20 Top Medical Device Companies to Focus on Customisation Services

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As digital disruption, start-ups, and changes in customer behavior transform the medical device industry, participants are assessing how they can harness market momentum. Value and outcome-based approaches, personalised and precision medicine, real-time monitoring, and increasing patient power will offer exciting service and solution opportunities. However, realising new insights, approaches, and sources of value within a meaningful timeframe will require collaboration. The breadth and scope of healthcare changes and range of regional delivery systems also indicate that partnership models will be quite diverse.

“Global healthcare, including the medical device industry, is evolving toward value and outcome-based approaches that can provide utmost benefit to a large population alongside a set of controlled resources,” said Transformational Health Industry Research Analyst Brahadeesh Chandrasekaran. “Medical device companies are developing newer services around core solutions by adopting advanced technologies and reinventing business models. Companies are beginning to work with providers, rather than being pure-play medical device sellers, in order to provide a holistic approach to improving quality of care and profitability, which is the focus of the next decade.”

Global Medical Device Industry Snapshot, 2017, new research from Frost & Sullivan’s Advanced Medical Technologies Growth Partnership Service program, provides an overview of the medical device industry and examines major segments and regional markets. The study explores the most significant market trends, their impact, and the top 20 companies to watch.

The top five medical device growth sectors will be:

• Structural heart technologies, such as transcatheter aortic and mitral valves and congestive heart failure products
• Robotics and robot assistance for surgery, treatment planning, and rehabilitation
• Interventional and implantable medical neurodevices to treat brain disorders
• Integrated patient monitoring devices that can be used anywhere, everywhere, and anytime
• Advanced diabetes care as data analytics, a holistic approach toward treatment and monitoring, and research on alternative therapies that will change market dynamics

Key companies to watch this year will be ZimmerBiomet, Panasonic Healthcare Holdings, Abbott, Boston Scientific, and Johnson & Johnson. Market leaders are driving several transformative trends:

• Digital and connected health solution vendors seek to become insights sellers with device-as-a-service (DaaS), like St. Jude Medical’s (now Abbott) CardioMEMS Heart Failure System and Medtronic’s Beacon heart failure management service
• Tier I vendors are adopting new business models, such as becoming comprehensive solution providers and partnering with hospitals to increase their customer base and sustain growth; e.g., Medtronic launched Hospital Solutions, Stryker launched Performance Solutions, and Zimmer-Biomet launched Signature Solutions
• Higher patient engagement through the rapid penetration of mhealth, wearables, telehealth, and social media; for instance, Neurometrix wearable nerve stimulation device by Quell, MOSAIQ® Survivorship toolkit from Elekta for cancer survivors, and Stryker's JointCOACH™ to navigate patients through joint replacement care
• Increasing market consolidation and portfolio optimisation; Abbott Laboratories acquired St. Jude Medical, and Johnson & Johnson acquired Abbott’s eye surgery business
• Rapid rise in payer-vendor partnerships as evinced by UnitedHealth Insurance’s partnership with Medtronic

“With the heightening regulatory scrutiny, device manufacturers need to ensure long-term patient safety and improve outcomes – the key criteria for regulatory bodies and policymakers – without increasing the cost of care,” said Chandrasekaran. “Frugal innovation can help realise a siseable share of the robust opportunity in developing and emerging markets with their large, but price-sensitive customer base.”

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