What Could Total Connectivity Mean for Medtech and for Healthcare?

In the very near future, healthcare systems could be able to connect almost all medical devices to their networks. By 2025, most hospitals will have the ability to network connect more than 90% of their devices, predicted David Niewolny, director, market development, healthcare, at Real-Time Innovations (RTI). Today, he estimated that “roughly 50% of the world’s installed medical devices and 90% of the devices that have been introduced in the last year have the ability to connect to a larger network. The reason for the large discrepancy is that the refresh cycles on many medical devices are ten years and in some cases more.” Niewolny said the percentage of connected medical devices will continue to increase as device manufacturers launch products with more and more connectivity. He began working with medical device vendors to include wired technologies in 2006-2008 (USB and Ethernet) and began adding wireless technologies (WiFi and Bluetooth) in 2012-2014. MD+DI asked Niewolny a few questions about the explosion of medtech connectivity, the efforts still needed to ensure patients benefit from such connectivity, and some of the challenges medical device manufacturers can expect to face along the way. What are the benefits of such connected devices? For instance, how specifically can they improve patient outcomes, reduce medical errors, and lower medical costs? Niewolny: There are a number of benefits of connected medical devices. First and foremost is that they greatl...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Software Source Type: news