SMART MEDICAL DEVICES MARKET ANALYSIS

Smart medical devices refers to the electrical devices that have an autonomous processing system within them and are used to monitor a range of health and fitness parameters on an everyday basis. These devices provide a multitude of advantages to the patient and caregiver in monitoring and measuring various healthcare regimens such as sensing the lowered levels of insulin through artificial intelligence among type 1 diabetes patients and delivering insulin. Smart medical devices have radically changed the perspective of disease management by offering easy and sustainable solutions to patients at home and reducing the turn-around hospital visits. The integration of emerging technologies such as internet of things (IoT) in the smart medical devices have helped to build an interface between functionality and communication. These devices assists in simplifying the medical complexities and convert it into logical format that helps to obtain results in understandable form. Smart medical devices have the potential to enable the patients to deal with serious health disorders, which required the intervention of healthcare professionals in the earlier days.

Market Dynamics

Increasing demand for better disease management tools and shift of populace towards smart medical devices are major factors propelling growth of global smart medical devices market. Chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, asthma, and other chronic obstructive pulmonary disorders (COPD) are highly prevalent across the globe, which increases the demand for tools and services to manage their symptoms. For instance, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2017, the number of people over 18 years of age suffering from diabetes have increased from 4.7% in 1980 to 8.5% of the global population by 2014. Moreover, the WHO also states that over 235 million people across the globe are suffering from asthma. The development of smart medical devices such as continuous glucose monitors as well as smart sensing wearable devices to monitor the patients suffering from various chronic diseases have resulted in the growth of smart medical devices market. For instance, in March 2017, Health Care Originals, a U.S. based company developed an Intelligent Asthma Management Kit (ADAMM) that is capable of identifying asthma attack before the wearer notices its symptoms. Moreover, the rising awareness of patients in disease monitoring and fitness is further expected to boost growth of global smart medical devices market. According to a survey article published by the Oxford University in 2016, internet of things associated with smart wearable devices is expected to connect over 20 billion object modules to the internet by 2020. Thus, the rapid surge in adoption of smart wearable gadgets will propel growth of smart medical devices market. However, inaccuracy of the devices in monitoring medical parameters and differences between the actual and displayed results could hamper the market growth. For instance, according to the study by Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics in 2016, the accuracy and precision of continuous glucose monitors (CGM) were less than that of blood glucose meters for the measurement of capillary blood glucose, indicating the increased risk of errors in the clinical application of CGM.

Regional Insights

On the basis of region, the global smart medical devices market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. North America holds the dominant position in the global smart medical devices market and is expected to retain its dominance over the forecast period, owing to technological advancements and broadened recommendation of healthcare professionals for the use of these devices. For instance, Cycadia Health, a U.S. based start-up introduced a novel product named iTBra in 2017 with inbuilt sensors that helps to keep track of patient’s breast health by monitoring the rhythmic pattern and conditions of the breast tissues.

Furthermore, Asia Pacific is expected to witness a significant growth in the market, owing to a massive pool of patients and innovative manufacturers delivering smart solutions to the market at marginally lower costs. For instance, Ten3T Healthcare Pvt Ltd, an Indian manufacturer developed Cicer, a wearable monitoring device that is capable of measuring ECG and other indicators such as heart rate, blood oxygen, and temperature in real time at affordable price.

Competitive Insights

The key players operating in the global smart medical devices market include Apple, Inc., Fitbit, Inc., F. Hoffmann-La-Roche, Abbott Laboratories, Medtronic Plc, Dexcom, Inc., NeuroMatrix, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, and others. Market players are focused towards providing technologically advanced products to sustain their presence in the market. For instance, in April 2018, Teradata introduced the first 4D analytics that can be used in wearable and personal medical devices to translate the three dimensional geospatial location data with time as the fourth dimension.

Market Taxonomy

On the basis of device type, the global smart medical devices market is segmented into:

• Diagnostics and Monitoring Devices
  • Blood Glucose Monitors
  • Heart Rate Monitors
  • Pulse Oximeters
  • Breath Analyzers
  • Medical Tricoders
  • Smart Clothing
  • Smart Watches
  • Others
• Therapeutic Devices
  • Insulin Pumps
  • Portable Oxygen Concentrators & ventilators
  • Hearing Aids
  • Others

On the basis of region, the global smart medical devices market is segmented into:

• North America
• Latin America
• Europe
• Asia Pacific
• Middle East
• Africa