The global medical device connectivity market will likely surpass the billion-dollar mark by 2022, in part driven by wide adoption of EHRs in the hospital setting, according to a Frost & Sullivan report.
Here are four insights from the report:
1. The global medical device connectivity market generated $232.5 million in 2017. North America comprised the largest market share at $171.8 million, in part due to technology innovation and U.S. policies like meaningful use that encouraged EHR adoption.
2. Widespread adoption of EHRs has encouraged hospitals to consider investing in interoperability between EHRs and other medical devices, such as clinical IT systems related to early warning scores, emergency alerts, virtual intensive care units and asset management.
3. Hospitals are increasingly interested in vendor-agnostic tools that enable interoperability between devices, according to the report. The report called out a few developers and products that have gained traction in the hospital market:
- Vendor-agnostic third-party device connectivity solutions, such as the CareAware iBus platform from Cerner and the Accelero Connect from Iatric Systems
- Healthcare system integrators, such as Enovacom, Validic and Forcare
- End-to-end medical device connectivity solutions, such as the SmartLinx from Qualcomm Life
4. Bi-directional communication using cloud-based technologies will become a necessity for next-generation connected medical devices, according to Dinesh Kumar, a transformational health industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan.
"For hospitals without EMR solutions, cloud-based device connectivity and digital dashboards for device data visualization will be an alternative," Mr. Kumar said in the market research firm's July 2 statement. "Furthermore, the growing demand for hospital-based MDC is giving rise to competitive business models and solution offerings from direct and indirect market players."