Historically, when hospitals needed information or data points for analysis, practitioners or researchers pored through books or searched through logs or documentation in file rooms. Hospital databases make it much easier for healthcare professionals to find the information they’re looking for and to use that data in beneficial ways. 

Here is a sampling of some of hospital databases your MedTech customers and prospects are using for research, education, benchmarking, and inspiring innovative ways to provide care. 

Advances in technology provide businesses and organizations with new functionality, the ability to streamline processes, and greater efficiency. Tech solutions also generate massive amounts of data. This big data holds the key to intelligent decision-making, more accurate forecasting, and even smart systems that can learn and take action on their own. To unlock those benefits, however, businesses first need to overcome the challenges associated with establishing a big data analysis process.

Biomaterials science can provide many components for medical devices that can save lives or improve the quality of life for patients. Some of these devices include heart valves, orthopedic prostheses, and intraocular lenses. These devices all interact with biological systems within the body. There has been substantial investment in this area to develop the next generation of medical devices to help with injuries and chronic diseases.

Media headlines about vaping lung injuries are dominating the news, with all 50 states currently reporting cases. While there have always been warnings about the dangers of vaping, new instances of injury have now prompted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to issue new advisories during what some would call a public health crisis.
​
As of December 3, 2019, 2,291 cases of vaping related lung injury have been reported, including 48 deaths. Additional deaths that could be linked to vaping are under investigation.

One question that MedTech sales and marketing teams definitely need to be prepared to answer is, “If our hospital uses your system, how will it impact our costs and reimbursement?” Understanding how Medicare and other insurers make decisions about how much to pay a hospital for procedures and patient care will help you accurately answer that question. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), under the Social Security Act, bases reimbursements on the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS), which categorizes cases according to diagnostic-related group (DRG). 

MedTech companies may have some questions of their own about hospital DRGs and how CMS uses them to determine reimbursement. Here are five answers you need: 

Healthcare organizations continually collect massive volumes of data. These stores of information can help physicians and patients understand risks, focus on prevention rather than reacting to acute conditions, and avoiding undesirable outcomes. Predictive analytics in healthcare applications can turn data into valuable insights. 
​
The concept of using data to determine probable outcomes is not new to healthcare — big data has been a buzzword in the field for years, and physicians have always studied the progression of diseases, patients’ responses to medication and treatments, and warning signs of impending critical conditions. Predictive analytics augments physicians’ knowledge built over lifetimes of practice with instant access to data insights and alerts of potential crises so healthcare practitioners can intervene. 

As of 2017, about 59 percent of all hospitals registered in the U.S. were nonprofit, and 21.3 percent were for-profit hospitals, with the remainder state-owned. With nonprofit hospitals outnumbering for-profit hospitals by nearly three to one, it may appear that organizing as a nonprofit clearly has more benefits than choosing a for-profit model. However, there are pros and cons of each type of hospital organization. 
​
Here’s a breakdown of some of the pros and cons for hospital administrators as well as how MedTech sales and marketing professionals can use that information to their advantage.

Since Elon Musk’s tweet characterizing nanotech as “BS,” there’s been a continuing debate about the practical applications of nanotechnology — and where the dividing line between innovation and hype lies. Medical nanotechnology, where there is a great deal of promise, is no exception.

The idea of nanotechnology, technology at nanoscale — about 1 to 100 nanometers, about 0.000001 of the thickness of a sheet of paper — is decades old. Nano.gov points out that physicist Richard Feynman included the concepts behind nanotechnology in a presentation at the American Physical Society meeting at CalTech in 1959. In his talk, he described a process that would enable manipulating and controlling individual atoms and molecules.

Since the integration of technology and medicine, MedTech has had no shortage of interested investors. Medtech is a broad industry comprised of many different types of solutions, including medical device startups, biopharma, and healthcare IT. Medtech investors come from a variety of sources. What they have in common is a vision that medicine and technology can do great things together.

These MedTech venture partners have been able to raise substantial amounts of money. Medical device companies alone raised $2.9 billion in 2018, besting the previous year’s $2.8 billion. The U.S. medical device market, the largest in the world, is anticipated to reach $173 billion in 2019. This hunger for opportunity means there will be more investments to those with innovative ideas. But where does MedTech investment money come from? Typically, from MedTech venture partners, which may dabble in several industries or focus solely on healthcare.

Here are the top MedTech investors that you should have your eye on.