Note from the Editor

Now that we have landed squarely in 2011, I thought it might be an opportune moment to put together a to-do list for Europe’s medtech community. Here goes.

Learn Mandarin. Not content with being the world’s factory, China is ramping up innovation initiatives. The Medical Technology Innovation Scorecard published by PwC earlier this year forecasts a steady decline in medtech innovation in developed economies. Meanwhile, China forges ahead. According to PwC analysts, China will reach near parity with the developed nations of Europe by 2020. That’s right … in less than 10 years! Moreover, in addition to benefiting from a €15 billion healthcare stimulus, Chinese medtech companies are venturing abroad in record numbers. According to a survey of medtech professionals conducted by the Emergo Group, “83.8% of Asian firms [surveyed] intend to enter international markets for the first time [in 2011].” Repeat after me: ren shi ni hen gao xing.

Get smarter. Until now, healthcare apps for smartphones have tended to target fitness fanatics and users seeking to monitor general health conditions. According to Berlin-based research2guidance, the mobile health apps market is about to undergo a sea change, as traditional healthcare industry players develop apps for the chronically ill. Consider the technology’s ever-evolving sophistication connecting with a target market of more than 2 billion patients suffering from a chronic disease—can you hear me now?

Remember: a hospice is not a home. In about 20 years, one out of every three people in Europe will be older than 65, and not one of them will want to spend any part of his or her golden years in an assisted-living facility. Companies that develop cost-effective technologies to foster ambient assisted living arrangements will prosper.

Practice frugal engineering. Back in August, I wrote that frugal engineering will save the world on our medtechinsider blog. The impetus for that messianic moment was an article titled, “The Importance of Frugal Engineering” (www.medtechinsider.com/archives/16876). The basic idea is that emerging markets don’t need stripped-down versions of wasteful first-world products—frugal engineering seeks to avoid needless costs in the first place. GE Healthcare is the medtech poster child for this movement. The company developed a low-cost handheld ultrasound scanner by incorporating frugal engineering lessons learned in its Indian medical research and development lab.

Don’t follow leaders. Watch your parking meters. This has nothing to do with medical technology—at least not in any linear sort of way—but it is darn good advice from the bard of Minnesota.

Norbert Sparrow
norbert.sparrow@ubm.com