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Medtech moves beyond the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic is still very much with us, and medtech companies continue churning out devices to meet coronavirus patient needs.

Device companies, however, are already looking to the future, including a return to some form of normal life. One scenario that orthopedic companies are counting on is that people who want surgery to correct painful conditions will seek it out rather than avoid it.

The pandemic-induced drop in elective surgeries hit these companies hard, as executive editor Chris Newmarker explains in the feature article, “The 10 largest orthopedic companies in the world.” Newmarker documents how these fi rms plan to recover and thrive.

In another feature, senior editor Danielle Kirsh illustrates how some of the industry’s other big players fared during the pandemic. (Hint: It wasn’t that bad.) And in the Women in Medtech column, Kirsh describes how a biomedical engineer and a vascular surgeon developed a device that enables physicians — and potentially fi rst responders — to help patients survive hemorrhages by blocking blood fl ow to the extremities.

This edition of Medical Design & Outsourcing also includes:

• Some experts’ theories on how 5G will affect medtech, courtesy of associate editor Sean Whooley. • Whooley’s drug-delivery column, which pinpoints advances in diabetes care, otolaryngology and in respiratory care, with connected inhalers. • Pharma editor Brian Buntz’s description of a fascinating technology that uses tiny, screw-like robots for precision drug dosing, including for brain tumors. • Hologic CEO Steve MacMillan’s thoughts on how the company plans to create an information index to yield new data on women’s health, from DeviceTalks editorial director Tom Salemi. • A ton of helpful intellectual property protection information in this month’s IP column, gleaned from the expertise of attorneys from Finnegan, Henderson,

Farabow, Garrett & Dunner.

Spurred on by the pandemic, companies in other industries continue to adapt their R&D and manufacturing expertise for healthcare. In this edition’s cover story, I describe how 3M and a pair of safety equipment companies recently redesigned reusable industrialstyle masks for use in healthcare settings. They each fi gured out ways to redirect and fi lter the healthcare workers’ exhalations to protect patients and others from catching COVID from them.

The likelihood of their adoption looks promising. Federal offi cials want hospitals nationwide to test them and come up with best practices for their use. The FDA has also advised healthcare providers to move away from decontaminating and reusing disposable masks and toward sturdier, longer-lasting and more protective devices such as these.

The sorrows and victories of the COVID-19 pandemic will remain burned in our memories forever. They will also surely inform the decisions that medtech industry leaders make as they plan to meet the next public health challenge. If there’s one thing we learned from the past year, it’s that medtech is up to the task.

Nancy Crotti | Managing Editor |

Medical Design & Outsourcing | ncrotti@wtwhmedia.com |