3 Reasons Medtech Will Be Slow to Evolve

Consumer health tracking devices such as Fitbit are making waves, as is the Affordable Care Act in the United States. But when it comes to technology creating revolutionary advances involving health providers, it is a different story.

That seemed to be one of the overriding themes among a panel of industry experts gathered Wednesday afternoon at trade group LifeScience Alley's LSA2014 conference in Minneapolis.

"The disruptive technologies might be there. But the infrastructure to support them might not be there," said David Amor, managing partner at quality consulting firm MEDgineering.

Here are three ways Amor and other panelists thoughts the healthcare infrastructure needs to change in order for disruption to roil the halls of medicine:

1. Regulations

It was only last year that the FDA issued new guidance about how it views mobile medical apps as well as security and wireless technology choices in medical devices.

Regulatory paths are pretty clear for designers adding wireless to an existing medical device, and there are plenty of health-related mobile health apps that are clearly not medical devices. But there are many other devices stuck in a gray area, according to Amor.

"It's brand new. So it's going to be subject to interpretation," Amor said.

2. Reimbursements

Under the Affordable Care Act of 2010, the Obama administration has been seeking to reward health providers more for promoting wellness among patient populations. But the reimbursements have not been keeping pace, says

"The reimbursement just isn't catching up to that. I think it slows innovation," said Ken Saitow, president and CEO of mobile healthcare messaging company CareWire.

The ACA is trying, but isn't there yet, said Thomas Brust, CEO of WellClub.

"Everyone wants to go out and treat wellness," Brust said. "But if you want to transform it, someone has to pay for it."

3. Industry Culture

Brust and others noted that doctors and other healthcare providers do not want to be inundated with data--especially consumer device-generated data they do not trust or do not find useful.

"Fortunately and unfortunately, most medicine is practiced one-on-one," Brust said. "Until data can help that one-on-one experience, I think big data is an academic exercise."

Still, Amor sees a holy grail: "The company that's going to become the Apple of mobile health and digital health is the one that can take the information ... big data, give a patient score for it. ... I think that's the key: It's the integration of all that data."