Doctor doctor: How your GP could have an increasing influence on medical device manufacture

Lu Rahman looks at how the digital health sector is increasingly influenced by healthcare professionals and consumers and the opportunities this brings for medical device manufacturers.

 Hearing about disruptive technologies is a bit old hat now. But before we all start rolling our eyes, recalling the number of times we heard this about the digital health sector, it’s probably worth acknowledging that actually this was and still is, about as disruptive as you can get.

Yes we know that the increase in connected technology has and is altering the way we access healthcare. In a few years the growth in online GPs and pharmacies has proliferated; we’ve seen talk of the paperless NHS move ever-closer to becoming a reality; apps to help with a range of illnesses and conditions have become validated by the healthcare sector and there is an increasing number of hospitals incorporating digital technology into their processes and procedures on a weekly basis – digital transformation is rife.

This is all fine and good you might think if you work in the NHS or if you’re looking for online health services. But the medical device sector, and those that supply it, has also seen a marked transformation too. Increased numbers of connected devices are being used on a global scale and whether it’s for personal health tracking, administering drugs such as biologics in the home setting, or monitoring conditions such as diabetes, the digital health sector is burgeoning.

In September 2015, Monitor Deloitte produced an industry study for the Office of Life Sciences – Digital Health in the UK. It found:

• The global market for digital health is worth £23bn in 2014 and is expected to almost double to £43bn by 2018
• The UK market size for digital health is £2bn and is expected to grow to £2.9bn by 2018, predominately driven by mHealth apps
• Digital health systems represent the largest market both globally and in the UK, where they contribute 66% of digital health sales
• The most promising market for growth is mHealth apps, which although is currently the smallest digital health market sub-sector, is predicted to grow at 35% in the UK and 49% globally from 2014-8.

The sector shows strong and positive opportunities. But there’s one area in particular that I find interesting and that's how we seem to be seeing a movement and drive for innovation shifting from manufacturers to healthcare professionals and consumers. Demand is driving the innovation from the ground, the grass roots if you like. EY recently picked up on this too.

Its Pulse of the Industry 2017 report has highlighted some key medtech findings: “In 2017, the industry demonstrates resilience and agility even as the pace of change accelerates on technological, reimbursement and regulatory fronts and new digitally based operating models shift power to consumers”.

In the document, Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, describes how a “blurring [of] the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres” is altering “business models, as decision-making power shifts away from manufacturers to other health care stakeholders.”

It’s fascinating stuff and offers real potential for medical device manufacturers to become involved in collaborative work with these stakeholders to create and nuture technology in a way we don’t often see. It’s exciting to think that a device can be manufactured with first-class expertise behind it, from the user and the manufacturer. What better way to create products that work and really are fit for purpose.

I’ve been interested in the concept of the ‘doctorpreneur’ for some time now – medics turned inventors. The blurring of boundaries between science, technology and manufacturing is fascinating and holds real promise for a future where the entire medtech chain works in collaboration pushing the boundaries of healthcare, creating products with real expertise at their core. I can’t think of many industries that work in this way, where users and stakeholders help shape the sector.

It offers great potential for manufacturers as well,  of course. The potential to design and make products that do what they should do, that offer results in terms of engineering, compliance and mass market appeal, is in my view, currently unrivalled.

The digital health sector offers immense challenge yet significant opportunity for global device manufacturing. As the supply chain makes demands upon markets such as sensors, adhesives and micro-manufacturing, it also offers significant growth potential for the companies that look to work in tandem with healthcare professionals to design devices for the future.