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For the past two years, I have been working with great passion on the subject of mobile health (or mHealth), having set up the global mHealth programme of the GSMA – the organisation that represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide. I am therefore very pleased that the momentum for mHealth has really been building.

The current voluntary cooperation of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) agencies organised within EUnetHTA indicates that HTA is a multidisciplinary process that summarises information about the medical, social, economic and ethical issues related to the use of a health technology.

Two weeks ago I attended the eHealth 2012 conference in Copenhagen, along with 2 500 other delegates, policy makers, providers, industry and many others. Coming out of there, my strongest take-away is the amazing opportunities innovation in technology can bring -for patient empowerment, improved health and more efficient provision of care – and the frustratingly slow pace at which it is being adopted in the health care system.

Medical device manufacturers routinely design products that, even a few short years ago, were the stuff of science fiction. And let’s not even mention the amazing research underway today that will animate tomorrow’s medical products, from Tricorder-like devices performing on-the-spot diagnostics to 3-D printers producing replacement body parts. But there’s a problem: money. To succeed in today’s marketplace, medical device original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) must take into account funding and reimbursement pathways, the critical role that health technology assessment (HTA) can play, and other factors that may have little to nothing to do with how well or how safely a device performs its intended task.

Incontinence is a condition that often gets associated with age. When we think about incontinence we tend to think first about elderly people and that’s normal because over 60% of nursing home residents are affected with some kind of incontinence (from mild to severe). However, European studies estimate that between 4% and 8% of the total population are affected, regardless of age. As our populations grow older, it is fair to say that more and more people will suffer from it. This could be your neighbour’s condition and you wouldn’t even know about it!

Europe is an important and continuously growing market for medical technology products. Driven by budgetary pressure on the payer and provider levels as well as by strong competitive dynamics, the commercial climate for established medical technology companies is, however, deteriorating. The recent industry survey MedTech Barometer 2011 conducted by us (and with ‘us’, I mean global strategy and marketing consultancy Simon-Kucher & Partners) confirms the presence of increasing commercial challenges but still provides an overall positive short-term business outlook. Yet the longer-term outlook is less positive and suggests that in order to remain successful in the European market place, established players will have to adapt their way of doing business in the future.

Korn/Ferry International and Eucomed are co-organising the upcoming “How to differentiate in a changing environment?” conference taking place on 5 July 2011 in Brussels. We have worked closely together to design an exciting programme that will give participants a broad view on the future from a health economic point of view, but the various sessions will also discuss what hospitals are looking for from medical device companies. In addition, we have invited accomplished speakers representing other industries’ perspectives and experiences. In short, this meeting is designed to allow the exchange of experience and ideas, and see what is done in other industries to help medical device companies enhance their competitiveness and remain healthy businesses.

Having been involved with the medical devices industry for many years, I’ve seen how the industry has evolved using innovative solutions and has constantly embraced technological developments. Recently however I had a friend on the receiving end of this technology and I hope you find his ‘patient case report’ below of interest – do note he also works in the medtech industry hence his knowledge on this subject…

Eucomed has recently submitted remote monitoring of implantable cardiac devices as one of its four proposals to the Active and Healthy Ageing Innovation Partnership under the European Commission’s Innovation Union Strategy. Such an initiative is exactly what Europe is in need of to ensure its place at the top of the innovation ladder. Eucomed selected […]