Medical devices – The way forward for the healthcare industry

Digital technology and innovation in design and engineering is transforming healthcare. Today, the world is witnessing the digital impact of technology across developed and developing worlds. Technology is proving to be an enabling platform to realize efficiency and effectiveness in medical practices and in the overall healthcare canvas.

  • With cloud-based technology, analytics and visualisation tools, powerful machine learning and computing algorithms continues to impact the way diseases are diagnosed and proactively treated. The adoption of clinical decision support tools and evidence based medicine will only increase globally.
  • Advances in engineering leading to low-cost processing, advances in sensing devices, advances in material sciences is transforming medical interventions and practices.
  • Technologies such as robotics based platforms is bringing a paradigm shift in surgeries and is positively impacting post-surgical recoveries.
    Digital platforms are bringing therapeutics more patient centric, through greater patient involvement and effective patient adherence.
  • Advances in connectivity platforms and software based applications, telehealth is now a wide-adopted alternative to deliver healthcare or to practice medicine. This is a significant cost benefit to patients in dealing with primary health concerns.
  • Patient records, clinical data and medication history are critical information blocks that needs to be secure as per HIPAA standards, yet accessible and be integrated to ensure preventative care / care management. The momentum for integration and interoperability continues to advance and create a holistic patient-centric treatment.

Emerging industry trends (national and global) with respect to medical devices

  • We understand the changing trends in this industry thereby, Tata Elxsi’s Medical Devices & Healthcare portfolio is largely based on the following key drivers in the industry:
    Innovation in devices: Today’s medical device makers are currently negotiating variety of opportunities and challenges. Some of them being:
  • Increasing pressure on cost.
  • Rising importance of emerging markets as the new growth engines.Growing need for digitally enabled and connected devices to support interoperability needs in hospital and care settings.

Connected & Smart Care: Advancements in sensors & allied technology is enabling a steady paradigm shift in healthcare today. Application of IoT based systems is visible in the care delivery, namely preventive care, post-acute care (PAC) and rehabilitation.
Combination of specialised IoT skills in Smart Sensors, M2M, Cloud, Analytics and mobility is bringing patient care services to the home and along with it disrupting business models.
In the Home health & Telecare space, we are seeing an increasing demand for solutions that enable patients to connect with physicians and emergency care providers through secure live video, audio or text messages.

Exploring innovative and emerging technologies in the healthcare sector

Artificial intelligence and machine learning has found it’s relevance in various industries. It has added immense value by enhancing the state of analytics, by providing insights as well as predictions based on the data. Owing to mass adoption of digital technologies, healthcare industry is witnessing significant growth in digital data, which offers immense opportunities to build various AI/ML driven solutions and automate workflow / processes for improved outcomes across the care continuum.
There have been many high profile initiatives to deploy machine learning and AI in healthcare. It involves technologies for data aggregation through various means, continuous training for optimization and reporting results for easier understanding and improved decision-making.