New digital health research from Parks Associates predicts U.S. unit sales of networked medical devices will exceed 14 million units by 2018, more than five times the sales from 2012. In the report Networked Medical Devices: Innovations & Business Models, analysts attribute multiple factors in driving this market, including an aging population and reforms spearheaded by the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The addressable market for networked medical devices includes 68 million Americans with hypertension and 26 million with diabetes. Consumers are also demanding more autonomy in managing their care, which will drive the market in 2014 to improve patients' self-care experience. Network connectivity will enable new business models built on health software and services instead of hardware and consumable sales.
Parks Associates reports networked medical devices, including weight scales, glucometers, and ECGs, will use a variety of networking protocols, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and ANT+, to enable patient self-care and point-of-care diagnosis. The networking functions on these medical devices create the need to aggregate sensor, test, and behavioral data, so solutions such as Qualcomm Life’s 2Net platform, which aggregates device data and can transmit to the cloud, will become more important in 2014.
