Key Takeaways & Insights from 2022 AdvaMed MedTech Conference

Key Takeaways & Insights from 2022 AdvaMed MedTech Conference

*Co-authored by: Sahar Malik, Lindsay Mitchell, Shrishti Seth, Alan Milinazzo, Greg Lovas

After an uncertain year, the 2022 AdvaMed MedTech Conference, the global medical technology industry’s largest event, broke attendance and international representation records and the overall tenor was more upbeat than might have been expected.

The recent conference in Boston offered the 3,400-plus attendees dozens of informative and insightful sessions about the industry’s principal issues and opportunities. And, as usual, the enthusiastic networking conversations provided invaluable connections.

Here are several takeaways from the conference from our Healthcare and Life Sciences MedTech team that we consider meaningful for industry leaders and their organizations. Key takeaways:

Economic and Market Implications: We all are familiar with the weakening economic conditions that have prompted companies to be efficient about their capital and to conserve cash. The advice from several AdvaMed sessions was premised on being more realistic about financing and more transparent during these changing times.  

For companies in earlier stages and those that are venture or privately backed, additional funding may not be as likely over the next 18-24 months. These companies were advised to consider a three-to-five-year strategy, keenly focused on longer-term value creation, robust data, and execution. Smaller company exits are expected to be driven by significant clinical or regulatory milestones - fewer of them – and on more focused technologies and/or portfolios.  

And while M&A activity for the industry slowed in 2022, it is expected to accelerate in 2023 because cash is absolutely available. The acceleration may take the form of new capital via new investors or the ever-more obvious opportunity for large and mid-sized MedTechs to invest strategically. Equally important and underscored was portfolio management by PE firms that may trigger further spinouts from strategic targets at all cap levels.

Digitization: Every MedTech now grasps it is a digital company – and therefore must communicate what that means to its customers/patients in terms of digital technology ranging from patient data/security, AI, VR, telemedicine, digital apps and engagement, interoperability and cloud-connected devices.  

It is increasingly beneficial for their own health that customers and patients understand, appreciate, and increase the use of digital apps and tracking devices in addition to the principal medical device they may be using.  

ResMed, the first MedTech to build connectivity in sleep monitoring, highlighted the advances it has made in remote patient monitoring by connecting the data accumulated around sleep, COPD, and respiratory efficiency. Michael "Mick" Farrell , CEO of ResMed shared that a pay-per-data or monthly subscription model for patients to get their data was not what they wanted; they wanted it for free. ResMed has provided this for free and adherence rates skyrocketed to 87%. He said the value add was not in monetizing data but liberating data and having patients select into the data that, in turn, provided ResMed with better insights from more data.

Physicians, however, are seeking not just more data but answers and solutions to real-time challenges. Medtronic CEO Geoff Martha noted that large volumes of data are not necessarily additive to the outcomes and solutions that physicians are seeking. It is important to support physicians to get to solutions quickly, and while MedTech seeks to bring more data sets forward, it must be done in a strategic way that supports efficient clinical solutions.

Health Equity & Community: Equity of access to health resources and working with local communities was a frequent topic and generated several insights.

Post-pandemic, a variety of health equity-related procedures has been welcome as treatments and procedures are no longer on pause. However, the need continues to exist in MedTech to greatly improve advanced analytics of procedure volumes overall. The need also exists to continue to train nurses and clinicians on health equity and better outcomes, especially in the areas of maternal and women’s healthcare, pandemic-related cardiovascular and/or respiratory issues, vision care, and diabetes.

The industry continues to push for more equity in clinical trials, using more varying patient populations In a more equitable healthcare system overall. Conference speakers noted we would see more diverse healthcare professionals who work in specialty areas such as orthopedics.

An obvious but consequential example mentioned many times were pulse-oximeters, so commonly used and meaningful devices that inform critical medical decisions. FDA advisors met on November 1 to discuss racial disparities in pulse oximeters readings, oxygen-level reading discrepancies and subsequent (and consequential) care decisions that have generated.

Better health equity also calls for more local complex surgical procedure access. More local hospitals need to be empowered to handle complex surgical procedures and address critical needs of diverse patient populations. Ashley McEvoy , J&J’s EVP and Worldwide Chairman of MedTech, advocated for MedTechs to be broadcasting the industry’s calling to achieve health equity.

Talent implications: Obviously, for us, there are key talent implications and takeaways from all the activity at the conference. Here are a few:

1.   As M&A activity picks up in 2023, it will be more imperative for companies to identify, promote, and place executive talent who grasp economic realities, can prioritize and execute well, can lead with transparency internally and externally, will position the company for strategic opportunities, and who are clearly passionate about driving value for patients by, for example, addressing unmet disease states and their overall higher quality of life.

2.   Patients and customers continue to understand the digitization of medical devices and its impact on patient health journeys, but also the greater health ecosystem. As MedTechs continue their medical device-as-a-service journeys, it is paramount for companies to hire leaders who partner well not only with CMS, the FDA, and healthcare systems, but with customers and patients to understand their holistic health journeys, digitally, as a lifestyle and beyond just the primary medical device.

3.   Health equity was an important topic at AdvaMed this year. And not just as a buzz word anymore, but with a clear focus with implications. At a baseline, executives in the industry must have a deep understanding of the inequities that face various patient populations. Not understanding the historic lack of diversity in patient populations and clinical trials, especially in medical devices, would be a gap in an executive leader today and would put MedTechs behind in terms of market and costumer expectations.

4.   Leaders must address staffing shortages in healthcare. The search is on for leaders who know creative approaches to address staffing issues from barriers to entry to burnout. Such leaders can shape thriving cultures and benefit not only hospitals and care facilities but academia and MedTech companies. Plus, of course, healthcare workers themselves. 

5.   Abiomed CEO Michael Minogue also noted that the next generation desires to be tied in with companies that employ a patient-first model where meaning and purpose exist. Ashley McEvoy also emphasized that the Medtech Industry has an amazing industry calling around high-science and unmet medical needs, affecting patient outcomes. She noted that organizations that put their mission and calling forward will attract digital health talent and a diverse workforce, which will lead to superior future leaders.

If the AdvaMed MedTech Conference is any indication – and we think it is – there are focused reality checks interspersed with healthy optimism in the MedTech sector. Our big takeaway: Medtech is in for a big and prolonged run. Executives who are agile, transparent, focused on execution, patient- and customer-focused, and connected to the broader industry, will be well positioned to make an impact. 

Max Trenti

Partnerships at Gleac | Managing and developing strategic partnerships to drive business growth and create mutually beneficial collaborations.

2mo

Great insights, Sahar! It's inspiring to see how the MedTech team is driving innovation and collaboration in the industry.

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