4 min reading time

David Stambaugh forwarded me a thought-provoking paper on trends affecting medical devices.

For today’s discussion, do you believe the aging population will benefit us most? The paper says, “According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the “60 years or over” population segment in developed countries is expected to increase from 23 percent to 32 percent by 2050.”

On the downside, do you believe increased regulation is the biggest obstacle? The paper says, “In a recent study conducted by the global medical device consulting firm Emergo Group, respondents, composed primarily of QA/RA professionals and senior managers, cited the “changing regulatory environment” as their greatest challenge in 2014.”

See http://medgroup.biz/5trends for the whole piece.

The editorial discusses emerging markets as an offset to U.S. regulatory challenges, China’s ambitious healthcare reform plan, and the pros and cons of healthcare consolidation.

Thanks for sharing, David. That link again: http://medgroup.biz/5trends

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SORRY ABOUT THAT…

Our companion website went down for a while last week.

But it’s all better now – so you can visit now to:

• Join the Medical Device Sales Webinar tomorrow at http://medgroup.biz/meddevsales

• Video of Kaiser Permanente’s CIO on what they need from device companies at http://medgroup.biz/Kaiser

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Make it a great week.

Joe Hage
Medical Devices Group Leader

P.S. The Medical Devices Group will be at Medtrade (Atlanta, Oct 21-23). Want to meet? http://medgroup.biz/Medtrade-2014

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Dale Yakin
BioPharma M&A and BD&L in APAC
Of the five listed, I’d say “consumerism” (and eventual remote continuous monitoring services) will be most dominant, though all have strong impact. Advances in nanotechnology have enabled many tests and monitoring capabilities to move from the laboratory to POC, and this can be a big step forward both for monitoring chronic illnesses as well as making critical treatment decisions under emergency/acute care scenarios. The broader adoption of healthcare in emerging markets and their general acceptance/promotion of diagnostic devices could be a strong long-term driver, but decisions and rate of technology adoption can often drag.

Funding trials (and any increase in trails cost) is still the biggest obstacle to new innovations advancing the standard of care, and I view this as a failure by the investment community – too often innovative products never move forward because those making the judgments miss the (often very valuable) differentiation and potential.

Dave Sheppard
Global M&A, OutSourced B,D&L Leader for SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) & Emerging Technology Healthcare Companies
The aging population is definitely a global trend that is impacting the developed markets (U.S., EU, Japan,Etc). The question is how will the demand for increased healthcare for this group be balanced with the need for reimbursement models that do not “break the bank” for most countries. It’ll be interesting to watch it unfold in less than perfect ways. The key for marketers will be to ensure their product is ahead of the reimbursement curve !

Ee Bin Liew
Access-2-Healthcare’s Owner and Consultant
the increasingly aging population – of course there is strain on the healthcare system. but if we move away from talking about numbers and the economy, what if your grandparents live 10 years longer? if the family is close and you love them, wouldn’t you want it? With healthcare technologies getting more mature and somewhat more prevalent, having an increasingly aging population is the inevitable fate of our world, for better or worse, we just deal with it. One of the critical impact in an aging population is to maintain the connection with the aged and promote their relevancy in the world.

increasing and changing regulations – didn’t we just have a thread on equipment in economically or politically challenging areas and we were thinking of how to service or provide more equipment to them? what are the regulatory schemes there? how about during natural disasters/pandemics? didn’t certain things just go straight through? meantime, in other parts of the world, organisations talk passionately about regulatory harmonisation, yet the same countries come up with more and more unique requirements to make stuff more and more challenging for governments, industry, and people alike…. why create such conflicting approaches and complexities for ourselves?

Will (Chidi) Onyenanu
Project Manager Research & Technology Europe at Cummins Inc.
I am a final year undergradaue student studying engineering. I am currently looking for a final year engineering design project in robotic or any mechanical component. Is there anyone with potential project ideas for me?
Thanks

Joe Hage
🔥 Find me at MedicalDevicesGroup.net 🔥
Appreciating your contributions! Keep ’em coming.

Shailendra Rao Nalige
Director – RX Digi Health Platform Pvt Ltd
Informative article.

Joe Camaratta
General Manager at MedAvante-ProPhase
I do not believe that increased regulation is the biggest obstacle. We have always been a regulated industry, and will learn to cope with additional regulation requirements.

I believe the biggest threat is the changing business model regarding who pays for medical devices, and how much they are willing to pay. The article touches on this topic under “Trend 4: Hospital Consolidation”, but it is more than just consolidation. Value-based reimbursement requires to manufacturers to demonstrate the impact of their innovations on patient outcomes (not just safety) and cost effective care. Most companies do not have the processes nor resources in place to collect such information and bring it to market in a manner that enables providers to make appropriate decisions. I agree with their conclusion on this topic: “Investing in robust reporting tools will also allow [companies] to better illustrate the clinical value of their devices by tying their products to measurable health outcomes.”

John Abbott
Consultant, Medical Devices & Regulatory Affairs
“Will the aging population benefit us?” Guess it depends on what you mean. Will it benefit the Healthcare industry? Probably if only because of sheer numbers. Will it benefit society? Unclear. With fewer and fewer workers supporting the increasing elderly population, a greater percentage of their income will be soaked up by medical costs – either directly through individual elder care or through Medicare increases. I guess that could be considered “bad” for the workers…

As to the regulatory question, you equate “changing regulatory environment” with “increased regulation”. Is that assured? Also, it is in the emerging markets where much of the regulatory growth today is being seen so I don’t necessarily see that as a way to offset existing regulatory requirements such as in the US, Canada, Japan and EU. I also encourage respondents to first put themselves in the shoes of the average healthcare consumer – the family of 4 struggling with an annual household income of $60,000 in a major city. Do you as a consumer of medical technology really want less regulation? Personally, I am not so sure. To date, the public has been unwilling to compromise on healthcare. Maybe that will change… And maybe Congress will give up gridlock for compromise consensus legislation.