The Medtech Revolution for a Healthier Future

Over the last two years, the world has understood, perhaps as never before, the importance of healthcare and the challenges facing public and private care systems.

Although advances in innovation and technology in healthcare have been occurring at an accelerated pace, since the pandemic they have moved at an exponential speed. As a result, the different players in the medical industry began to offer alternative and value-added services capable of supporting people in the battle against their illnesses. In the context of shutdowns, the industry sped up its connection with technology, making it a strategic ally to reconnect patients with their health and doctors with their patients' needs.  

A survey carried out by Ipsos and commissioned by J&J MedTech LATAM, which collected data from 2,200 men and women over 18 years of age in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, showed that:

• 70 percent of Latin Americans said that they or a family member had delayed or canceled their healthcare services due to COVID-19.

• Although many people stopped attending hospitals and clinics in person, in Mexico, only 30 percent reported using telemedicine as an alternative to solve their medical care.

• However, when deciding to schedule a surgical procedure, 60 percent of Mexicans said they prefer to do so if they stay in contact with their doctor or health center.

We are beginning to experience a change in social dynamics, thanks to the speed with which most of the vaccines that helped humanity to face COVID-19 were developed, several of them produced in record time thanks to different innovations and technologies used in the creation process.

The previous is just an example of the possibilities and scope that technology allows, which have contributed to changing the lives of people across a large part of the world over the last decades. We are facing a "new industrial revolution" since the advances in technology occurring during the last couple of years are equivalent to more than 200 years of development in the history of humanity. We are at the beginning of a new era.

The Medtech Era

This integration process between medicine and technology is known as medtech, a concept that comprises most of the developments and advances made around these topics.

Also known as medical technology, this field aims to improve healthcare quality by providing better diagnoses, less invasive treatments, and better rehabilitation and learning processes through innovation. This combination gives us medical alternatives to save and improve people's lives, including options like magnetic resonance imaging, laser and robotic surgeries, 3D printed prosthetics, or digital care services. 

All these developments have contributed to the medtech sector's global revenue surpassing US$457 billion in 2019, incorporating annual growth of more than 5 percent, according to the Statista platform. 

Nevertheless, its scope does not stop there but instead aims to scale in the coming years. By 2024, medtech is estimated to reach up to US$600 billion, demonstrating its potential.

The combination of the research work carried out by large companies and startups will contribute to achieving these revenues since both are relevant for generating new solutions that can help protect the world's health.

In this context, it is noteworthy that, according to data from the Bank of Silicon Valley, last year, startups in this segment within the US and Europe received nearly US$86 billion in investments.

This is how it has gradually gone through the creation of countless tools that today are already helping humans better cover their needs.

Raising Capabilities Through Technology

Similarly, medical technology, public and private organizations, and institutions in the health sector must work together and contribute all their knowledge, skills, and experience to create new alternatives to improve people's quality of life.

Through medtech, technologies like virtual reality today allow humans to live experiences they could not have otherwise. This area can insert itself into the dynamics related to the metaverse that is experiencing an increasingly resounding global explosion.

Some of those dynamics include creating educational simulators to strengthen students' and doctors' training and learning processes, allowing them to practice medical procedures in controlled virtual environments and better prepare for what they will face. 

The advantages of this type of alternative have solid and documented foundations. A study carried out in Mexico and published in the Journal of Musculoskeletal showed that the use of virtual reality simulators in medical teaching allows doctors to improve their working time by up to 6.14 minutes.

Some medical areas that could benefit from this type of technology include bariatric, colorectal, gynecological, thoracic, electrophysiological, general, trauma, and orthopedic surgery.

The purpose is that, in the future, technology will continue to contribute to the development of the country's health sector and benefit more health professionals, who, with these tools, can raise their skills as if they were doing it in the real world but without exposing patients.

Technology will not replace healthcare professionals’ skills; however, it can be that element that allows them to improve and take advantage of every innovation built in the metaverse in favor of healthcare. The medtech revolution is just beginning.