Too Connected? No Such Thing

Most mornings begin (after hitting snooze a few times on my phone) with a heavy-footed, squinty-eyed saunter into the kitchen for (as Dolly Parton sang about) a cup of ambition. While I drink my mornin’ cup of Joe and listen to the background noise of the local news on the television, I reach for my iPhone—the same one I had been mercilessly tapping to silence a few minutes before. My workday starts, as it does for many, before getting to the office—heck, even before hitting the shower. Between sips of coffee, I read and return emails, forward some, file others away, and delete the junk. My calendar is updated and items are added and removed from the day’s to-do list. When I reach my desk, my computer reflects the morning’s efforts. It’s seamless. It’s easy. Most of us take it for granted. We live in a very connected world.

That level of connectivity, however, doesn’t extend as much as it could into the world of healthcare and medical devices. Granted, there are a few more barriers to its use (think regulatory) than there are with consumer technology, but that’s changing and presents medtech and high-tech companies with a challenge. Medical device connectivity is a connection through which data is transferred between a medical device (such as a patient monitor) and an information system. Though today it often is hard-wired, when that connection becomes wireless, the benefits are astounding. By eliminating the need for manual data entry or a physical visit to a healthcare facility, potential advantages include faster and more frequent data updates, diminished human error, improved workflow efficiency, enhanced patient-caregiver communication, and more complete disease management.

According to a recent report from Albany, N.Y.-based research firm Transparency Market Research, the global medical device connectivity market was worth $3.5 billion in 2012, and the firm expects the market to reach $33.5 billion by 2019 with a compound annual growth rate of nearly 38 percent between this year and 2019.

Increased adoption of electronic medical records made North America the largest market for medical device connectivity in 2012 with 62 percent market share, the report noted. Despite the rise of wireless technologies, wired hardware still remained the largest segment of the market at 40 percent. Transparency listed WiFi, wireless medical telemetry service and Bluetooth as some of the most common wireless methods of connecting medical devices.

“Wireless connectivity technology is expected to witness widespread adoption owing to its compatibility, interoperability and cost effectiveness over wired technology,” researchers wrote.

In early 2013, the firm published a report predicting that worldwide sales for mobile health technologies and services would reach $10.2 billion by 2018, up from $1.3 billion last year. Clearly, the prospects are there for companies to chart new territory.

“Wearable” technology will transform how we interact with our healthcare providers and manage our own health. The technology that fuels smartphone apps that monitor our fitness goals today will tomorrow keep an eye on a diabetic’s insulin level or a cardiac patient’s heart rate, alerting doctors instantly to a potential problem.

A few articles in this month’s issue of Medical Product Outsourcing examine this exciting yet daunting world of connected consumer health. In her feature about electronics manufacturing service (EMS)providers (page 52), Associate Editor Ranica Arrowsmith explores how EMS providers are helping medical device companies flesh out the untapped promise of their technology. 

“The emergence of wearable electronics for daily consumer use promises a great vision for medical devices,” Girish Wable, technical project manager for St. Petersburg, Fla.-based EMS manufacturer Jabil Inc., told Arrowsmith, adding that such devices “have the ability to propel health monitoring and awareness beyond human comprehension. Wearable devices can help feed a huge amount of data into intelligent analytics, making it possible for prognostic and strategic medical care while minimizing the need for tactical and reactive treatments.”

In the feature “Medtech’s Consumerization” on page 58, Donna Fedor, a California-based medical device and healthcare IT consultant, told MPO: “Most people don’t just use their devices to make a phone call or send a text anymore. Our music, our schedules, our photos, our books, our contacts—you name it—are on these devices. Why shouldn’t we manage our healthcare on them, too? Medical device companies are realizing what a great tool they can be and are finding ways to integrate their technology.”

Our society is churning out the first generation of consumers that truly won’t know what it was like to ever be disconnected. More than a third of children today under the age of 2 (yes, that number is correct) have used mobile technology, according to a recently released report from Common Sense Media. While we may still have to wrap our minds around all the variables, for them it will be a no-brainer.

Christopher Delporte
Editorial Director