Medical Devices Changing Landscape and Growing Penetration
“In the previous decade, the healthcare business has grown at double-digit rates and evolved dramatically. However, a number of obstacles must be overcome in order to ensure that the world has access to high-quality, low-cost healthcare. In India, the healthcare industry is one of the most important sectors, not only because of its social importance, but also because of its revenue and employment potential.”
The medical device industry is one of the most essential in the healthcare business since it ensures the safety and well-being of people all over the world. Medical devices must be constantly improved and enhanced with the proper use of innovation and technology in order to achieve the highest quality requirements and global norms.
The availability of medical professionals and health technologies are both critical to successful healthcare delivery. Medical gadgets play a vital role in the delivery of healthcare. They give health-care providers with the tools they need to do their jobs successfully and provide high-quality treatment.
Medical Device Manufacturers' Significance in the Continuity of Care
In this scenario, medical gadgets play an important role in improving illness screening, diagnosis, and treatment, as well as the restoration and monitoring of health indicators to aid prevention. While medical device producers have mostly concentrated on enhancing care quality and life expectancy, we also need to boost device affordability to have a large-scale impact.
Test and Diagnosis
The complexity and accuracy of screening have both improved with to advances in testing and diagnosis technology. Portable/point-of-care devices have enhanced diagnostic mechanisms in primary care, allowed for care to be delivered at home, and resulted in better health outcomes and patient satisfaction. It has also increased access to high-quality healthcare in underserved and distant areas, as well as allowing patients to receive treatment outside of typical healthcare settings.
Care And Treatment
Surgical equipment developments have allowed surgeons to address very complex and severe patients while also reducing the length of extended hospital stays. It has becoming more viable to relocate elective and sophisticated surgeries to short stay/outpatient surgery centres, such as knee replacement, bariatric surgery, and pain treatment. Laparoscopic surgery, for example, significantly improves results while also reducing hospital stays and treatment costs.
Restoration
With the support of new rehabilitative and assistive technology, rehabilitative centres and hospitals are making it simpler for patients to recover and return to a relatively normal life. People with impairments can now live productive lives and achieve their goals thanks to advancements in rehabilitative technologies.
Observation
Patients may now monitor their health at home, keeping a careful eye on all important health indicators, thanks to advancements in health screening technologies. Smart gadgets are also increasingly being used to remotely monitor patients and diagnose life-threatening illnesses early, eliminating the need for hospital visits and relieving pressure on already overburdened healthcare facilities.
There is a need for a more hospitable environment for indigenous manufacturers.
The cost of healthcare delivery is heavily influenced by medical technology. Medical devices account up at least 30% of the capital required to build a secondary or tertiary care facility, according to conservative estimates. Diagnostics and medical gadgets also account for at least 20% of the total cost of medical services.
The medical device industry is critical to enhancing healthcare access in the country. Unfortunately, the environment does not support the sector's efforts to increase affordability and accessibility.
Emerging trends in the Medical Devices
Current technologies that need being attached to a machine, blood draws, and other inconveniences will be replaced with wireless, non-invasive monitoring of the body's vital signs and other physiological functions. We are seeing a peek of the future in today's wrist bands and other wearable technologies. In the near future, these gadgets' functionality will be transferred to flexible electronic devices in the form of adhesive patches. Sensing technologies will be incorporated in our garment fibres and incorporated in things in our environment in the future. The following are some of the current sensor research areas:
Optical techniques
Fluorescence is a phenomenon that is frequently exploited for diagnostic purposes. When injected into the skin, nanoparticles that glow have been created to bind to a specific substance. When nanoparticles glow, an LED light and a smartphone may be used to read them. The amount of fluorescence may be studied and converted into a measure of the chemical of interest. The use of fluorescence in the skin to screen for Type 2 Diabetes is becoming more common.
Raman spectroscopy uses light to assess glucose levels through the skin. Raman spectroscopy is used in conjunction with a software programme that relates blood sugar levels to the rate at which glucose diffuses into interstitial fluid.
Making use of the eye's surface
Researchers are incorporating microscopic optical, electronic, and biosensing devices into contact lenses to track a wearer's cholesterol, temperature, and other health markers using the biochemistry of the eye surface, which contains a lot of information about the human body. Contact lenses with tiny antennae, radios, and light sources are being created using nanotechnology.
Using video
Researchers have been able to improve video in order to display small movement and colour changes that could not previously be seen. The method takes a typical video sequence and adds spatial decomposition and temporal filtering to the frames. The resulting signal is then amplified to show the information that was previously buried. The technique can be used to visualise blood flow as it fills the face, as well as to enhance and expose subtle movements.
The heart pumps blood, and little movements of the head occur while the heart pumps blood, so a method that uses an algorithm to enhance video has been utilised to identify pulse rate.
Skin conductance as a tool
Small variations in sweat gland output result in significant variations in skin conductance. This phenomenon is being investigated as a therapeutic option for autism, depression, and sleep disorders. Changes in skin conductance can potentially indicate the development of serious medical problems. Skin conductance, for example, peaks right before an epileptic seizure. Skin conductance has the ability to provide a wealth of information on how the body expresses both emotional and physical situations.
Wireless transceivers are used
Existing, mature technology is being used and coupled in ways that allow it to monitor numerous physiological systems without having to touch the patient. Engineers at the University of Utah are working with wireless transceivers in order to develop a system that can monitor the breathing of surgical patients, adults with sleep apnea, and babies at risk of SIDS. Sensors put under mattresses detect the heart rate, respiration rate, and movement of patients in other approaches.
Data-enhanced Imaging
To deliver significantly improved image clarity of human anatomy and physiology, non-invasive optical and electrical sensing technologies will be complemented by powerful computational algorithms. To provide clear views of organs, physical systems, and even cellular activities, advanced algorithms will translate, filter, and enhance raw data. In real time, we will be able to isolate and visualise physiological function. Blood flow, gastrointestinal functions, and even brain synaptic activity will be observed, analysed, and assessed. It will be possible to isolate a section of a patient's vascular system, view it in three dimensions, and highlight areas of occlusion or thinning of the arterial wall.
Augmenting Physical Capabilities Using Prosthetics
We will see items that allow people to boost muscular function and modify other parts of their physicality, based on the technology that will make prosthetics to restore the function of a lost limb. Strengthening gadgets that allow people to safely lift twice their body weight and focusable spectacles that offer wearers the vision of an eagle are two examples.
Health-Care Issues in Developing Countries
In less-developed regions, health care is typically a luxury that people in rich countries take for granted. The population is dispersed, and there is minimal infrastructure to get to them rapidly. There is a power outage, as well as a shortage of refrigeration. Theft and bribery are common in political contexts. Cultural conventions obstruct proper treatment (e.g., Muslim women can only be seen by female doctors). Systemic poverty prevents the utilisation of technology that is taken for granted in the industrialised world. Access to health care is difficult for geographically scattered and distant people.
To cite a good example, we can take the case of countries like India and Germany that are coming up with advancements in the medical sector.
IoT in the Medical Industry
Sensors and actuators, as well as electronics that allow them to send and receive signals wirelessly, are becoming increasingly common in manufactured products. The "Internet of Things" refers to a collection of various things that can connect and communicate with remote servers and with one another. It has far-reaching ramifications for medicine and health care. Wearable sensors and medical technologies that monitor our physiology are becoming increasingly popular, allowing us to achieve health goals and predict oncoming health problems. That capability will be provided by the items in our environment as part of the Internet of Things.
By photographing and analysing the blood that enters and leaves your face as your heart beats, a video camera placed in your bathroom mirror will monitor your blood pressure and heart rate. As you go about your morning ritual, the statistics will be shown on your mirror. Car seats and steering wheels will be fitted with sensors. They'll be installed on your home's walls and embedded in your office's door jambs.
The Internet of Things will enable widespread automatic monitoring. The physiological signals that have an impact on our health condition will be automatically gathered, sent, evaluated, and the results reported via sensors in our devices, gadgets, automobiles, and buildings.
Major Market Highlights:
- To broaden its remote care product offerings, Koninklijke Philips N.V. announced the acquisition of BioTelemetry, a U.S.-based cardiac diagnostics and monitoring company, in December 2020. Leading organisations will be able to grow as a result of their growth plans. GE Healthcare, DePuy Synthes, Ethicon LLC, Baxter International Inc., Medtronic, and Philips Healthcare are some of the other companies in the global market. Companies are using tactics to boost their market share of revenue.
- Stryker announced the acquisition of OrthoSensor Inc., a pioneer in the digital transformation of musculoskeletal care and sensor technology for total joint replacement, to add its Verasense intraoperative sensor technology to its Mako robot portfolio.
Conclusion: A leap from Ayurveda to Developed medical facilities
The medical device industry is expected to increase in the future, thanks to a changing regulatory and economic climate, and a variety of factors are driving this growth. By 2025, noncommunicable illnesses are expected to account for 75 percent of all fatalities in the country, with diabetes, heart disease, and COPD becoming more prevalent.
The senior population is expected to grow, necessitating a greater demand for high-quality healthcare and medical devices in both homes and hospitals.