2 Significant Trends Transforming Medtech

It comes down to digital health and the power of the consumer, Stacy Enxing Seng, former president of ev3, said Wednesday at Minnesota Medtech Week.

Chris Newmarker

The Provo, UT-based startup Owlet's wearable can track an infant's breathing and pulse--and hopefully help parents keep their newborn safe during sleeping--and the sensor is innocuously packaged in a snuggly little sock. Unlike the older vacuum cleaner-looking contraptions, San Clemente, CA-based Fresca Medical's sleep apnea device looks more like a headset.

These are but two examples of how medtech is changing to incorporate digital health and the new power of the patient consumer, Stacy Enxing Seng, a medtech industry veteran, investor and former president of ec3, said Wednesday morning during her keynote address at Minnesota Medtech Week.

"Regardless of what side of the debate you're on, from my perspective there is so much momentum going on. How do you take advantage of that momentum?" Seng said. 

Digital health is the fastest growing growing sector in healthcare. From over $4 billion in private investment in 2014, the investment is expected to grow to $7 billion by 2017, according to Nuvium data that Seng cited. Meanwhile, healthcare is becoming a major pocketbook cost of American families, driving their decisions. 

With Obamacare focusing health providers to control expenses and better manage patient populations, "value" is becoming king, Seng said. 

"It is not surprising that their focus when it comes to innovation is on cost and economic benefit. It is moving beyond the product to solutions across healthcare," Seng said. 

The patient-provider conversation is moving from "fix my pain now" to prevention and concepts of wellness. And companies not traditionally in the medical device space, including Apple, Google, and IBM, are looking for partnerships. 

"This represents a unique opportunity in changing the technology," Seng said. "Who would have thought of the concept of getting your hearing aids at Costco? Who would have thought of getting your blood tested at a Walgreens?"

Chris Newmarker is senior editor of Qmed and MPMN. Follow him on Twitter at @newmarker.

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