UBM TechInsights, a provider of sophisticated information services, consulting, and management software for technology companies seeking to leverage and protect their technology and intellectual property assets, has recently issued warnings to the consumer medical device industry. The warnings state that the smartphone juggernaut will impact revenues, design strategies, and intellectual property (IP) management for medical devices in the same way it has for many consumer products including cameras, GPS devices and personal media players.
Jeff Brown, vice president of business intelligence for UBM TechInsights, had addressed a seminar on Managing the Electronic Medical Device Lifecycle from Standalone Innovation to Converged Capability, at the Medical Design & Manufacturing (MD&M) West. His seminar dealt on the following topics, Electronic Medical Device Industry, Technology Lifecycle, Parallels to the Portable Consumer Electronics Industry, Electronic Medical Device Case Study, and The Future. The UBM TechInsights' product profile database includes more than 1000 product teardowns of consumer electronic devices and smartphones, utilizing this information, Brown has traced the technology lifecycle of consumer electronics innovations as they have diverged along these two paths and examined how electronic medical device technologies will progressively converge with smartphones.
Brown urged that innovative medical devices at the time of their launch functioned as a standalone, however over a period of time successful device categories attract competitors that drive product evolution either by improving the original stand-alone format, or converging functionality with a larger, established market. In the present day scenario, many of the core elements used in medical devices are being used in smartphones to deliver valuable medical device functionality at a lower marginal cost through integration with smartphones.
In a release, Brown said that, "The question for traditional medical device companies is whether their designers, marketers and IP staff have factored the smartphone platform into their thinking. Smartphones provide medical technology companies with unprecedented access to an enormous consumer market. To capture this opportunity, they must think carefully about how they develop new technologies and protect their intellectual property innovations. Otherwise, they face the same fate as makers of stand-alone GPS and MP3 players a slow decline to obsolescence. Medical device functionality in smartphones is often rudimentary to start, compared to stand-alone devices. However, smartphone implementations come with the advantage of being conveniently at hand and ready for use at all times, and usually at a significantly lower cost to the consumer. Over time, medical technology innovations improve the precision and reliability of implementations on smartphones so that they rival or, when combined with apps even surpass stand-alone devices."
Carolyn John is a Contributor to HealthTechZone. To read more of her articles, please columnist page.Edited by
Jennifer Russell
