With a projected 1.5 billion people aged 65 years or over worldwide by 2050, the demand for medical devices is set to increase exponentially, with global outsourced medical device manufacturing projected to grow by 14% annually over the coming years. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at some of the most important trends and technologies that are transforming healthcare and the way medical devices are manufactured.
The medical devices market is poised to continue rapidly growing, with aging populations, rising chronic disease rates, bioelectric devices replacing traditional hardware, and increasing awareness of the importance of early diagnosis and prevention driving demand for diagnostic, monitoring, and home healthcare devices and equipment.
Further accelerated this growth, however, are a number of exciting technological advancements and trends that are transforming healthcare and medical device manufacturing as a whole.
Let’s take a look at some of the most important emerging trends and technologies in the medical device sector.
Additive manufacturing, which might be better known as 3D printing, is an innovative technology with the potential to truly revolutionize the healthcare industry (among many others). With 3D printing, medical device manufacturers can simplify the production of intricate and custom parts and devices, enabling the creation of necessary components at a much quicker pace. Widespread adoption of this technology could have a dramatic impact on healthcare, reducing costs for manufacturers and the time it takes to provide life-saving treatments to patients in need.
It can also give surgeons a much better understanding of their operations, providing a detailed map of sorts and the opportunity for “practice runs.” Surgeons can now, for example, 3D print the tumor of a patient, and then run through every move and potential complication during surgery, allowing them to choose the best possible course of action.
Innovations in AI and automation have dominated the news of late, and much like many other industries, robotics and automation are already making their mark on medical device manufacturing. Forward-thinking manufacturers are already leveraging robotics and automation to streamline their manufacturing process, and this has allowed them to reduce costs by improving product inventorying and increasing overall quality by removing human error from the process.
China, in particular, has been a global leader in the adoption of warehouse and factory automation, which has helped drive down production costs that were already lower than competing countries. Going forward, the hope is that by automating repetitive tasks, manufacturers will free up skilled workers to focus on more complex and high-value tasks, which will further improve productivity and efficiency and reducing costs by not losing product in the warehouse or increasing quality by taking human error out of production.
The term Industry 4.0 (also known as the fourth industrial revolution) refers to the digital transformation, or digitalization, of manufacturing and its related industries and processes. Industry 4.0 touches on many of the trends we have already discussed, but also involves integrating technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, analytics, and machine learning into production facilities. By focusing on digital transformation, medical device manufacturers can optimize efficiency and decision-making like never before, enabling them to more personalized products and services, in turn improving patient outcomes and satisfaction.
The emergence of personalized medicine is an exciting development in healthcare, giving medical practitioners the ability to tailor treatments and devices to their patients’ needs. This has perhaps been most prominent in the area of prosthetics and implants, where a more personal approach is allowing for custom-fit devices that significantly improve the outcomes and quality of life for patients.
This same approach will have a dramatic impact on patient outcomes and experiences, expanding practitioners’ ability to create treatment plans that reduce negative side effects and give their patients quicker recovery times.
For obvious reasons, minimally invasive surgery has become the preferred surgical option for patients around the world. As this area of surgical treatment evolves, manufacturers are increasingly creating devices that are smaller, more precise, and less invasive than traditional surgical devices, while also incorporating a range of technological innovations, including specialized cameras, scanners, testers, lasers, and robotic arms.
Much like many other industries, sustainability has become an important consideration in medical device manufacturing. Awareness of the impact of medical devices on the environment has created a push to create a more sustainable system of healthcare. Manufacturers are therefore increasingly looking for methods to reduce waste and environmental impact, both during the manufacturing process and in the disposal of medical devices.
As the healthcare and medical device industries continue their march toward industry 4.0 (with connected medical devices playing a huge role), cybersecurity becomes a growing concern. What this means is that medical device manufacturers are now increasingly responsible for implementing measures that help prevent cyber attacks and protect sensitive medical information and data.
There are also a number of trends related to specific devices or medical techniques that may drive the development of new materials and manufacturing processes for medical devices.
These include:
The ongoing popularity of devices like smartwatches and fitness trackers in the wellness space is fueling demand for smaller and more lightweight devices that patients can wear. To meet this demand, and to create wearable devices that patients can wear for extended periods of time (and often while exerting themselves) medical device manufacturers have started using flexible and biocompatible materials.
Recent advances in diabetes testing patches are a good example, as they can now be attached to a patient’s arm for a week at a time and monitored remotely, providing a far less intrusive method than drawing blood multiple times per day.
A growing trend in the medical industry, Point-of-Care Testing refers to tests that are conducted at the point of patient care rather than in a laboratory. As these tests need to provide accurate results, quickly and easily, this trend is pushing the development of smaller, more portable medical devices that incorporate materials and technology like polymers and advanced sensors to provide continuously improving levels of precision and flexibility.
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