Five Predictions for MedTech in 2022
As we move into 2022, the healthcare industry continues to evolve in response to the ongoing pandemic, with calls for greater sustainability and more effective procurement models. Here are five key trends that Vamstar predicts will shape the healthcare industry in 2022.
1. More automation and scaling for value-based contracts
Value-based procurement (VBP) is seeing increased usage across the MedTech sector. Vamstar expects this growth to continue into 2022. Across all of Europe, Vamstar’s platform recognized that 4% of healthcare and life sciences tenders featured non-price criteria in 2020. Narrowing the regional focus to the EU5, Nordics, and Netherlands revealed a much higher share at 16.6%. And further sharpening the focus to a particular condition such as cardiovascular disease increases the share further to 48% for the same year. These numbers reveal that VBP has been gaining traction over the last few years.
There are challenges to scaling up VBP, including the need for automated systems and transparent outcomes. A well-designed AI-based VBP solution can be used as a means of getting around these issues by simulating outcomes and measuring performance. AI can offer a dynamic and self-learning data model to match the true cost and value drivers for all stakeholders. It can further simulate outcomes through continuous monitoring and extraction of key outcomes across major therapy areas. This data can then be used to help create contracts between buyers and suppliers, increasing the pace at which VBP is adopted in procurement.
2. Future proofing supply chains
As the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates, healthcare supply chains need to be “future proofed” so that previous shortfalls are not experienced again. In the case of the NHS, one contributor to the UK’s PPE problem was an over-reliance on just a few suppliers. In 2019, Vamstar found that 44% of healthcare contracts in the EU received just one applicant and 15% had no bidders at all. In order to bypass these supply chain issues, buyers need more efficient access to supplies.
One means of achieving this is through risk assessments. Vamstar won the UK Research and Innovation group’s research fund to develop risk profiles for healthcare suppliers. This project will help the NHS access a wider market of suppliers and ensure a high quality of goods. In addition, it will incorporate proactive action, including early identification of major supply chain disruptions and tracking trends as they occur. Reshaping procurement in these ways can future proof health systems for the next crisis.
3. Greater sustainability
Healthcare systems are looking to reduce their carbon footprint and become generally more sustainable as the effects of climate change were even more apparent in 2021. At the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference, or COP26, 50 countries pledged to develop climate-resilient and low-carbon health systems, as the health sector accounts for 5% of all global emissions.
VBP is an effective means of fulfilling contracts with such sustainability criteria. VBP contracts use non-price criteria such as reducing carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, waste production, and water consumption. Although not necessarily the least expensive option, this methodology produces value-based outcomes which reduce costs in the long term. This is in line with the Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT) concept; reducing wasteful activities such as energy consumption, waste production, and water consumption.
4. Continued incorporation of AI
2021 saw an increase in healthcare AI uptake beyond business performance, and Vamstar expects this to continue over the coming year. The number of diagnostic AI approved by the FDA was 38 in 2021. In addition, Vamstar analyzed imaging analytics in our marketplace and found that for the EU10, using search terms such as ‘artificial intelligence’, ‘clinical decision support’, ‘computer aided detection’, ‘imaging analysis’, and ‘machine learning’, the compound annual growth in terms of revenue has been 63% over the last ten years.
At the recent RSNA 2021 conference, Vamstar spoke with several leading vendors of imaging platforms. Scott Miller, CMO of Global Imaging at GE Healthcare said, “our AI is intended to be an enabler to improve the patient experience, staff experience, and clinical outcomes”. Fujifilm, Agfa, Philips, Konica Minolta, and Shimadzu also spoke about their developments within AI for radiology. While most of the diagnostic AI being used today is still in a trial phase, it is being found to enable faster, more accurate imaging, better use of staff, and improved patient experience. There was also much interest in using AI, analytics, and advanced visualization solutions to help deliver more information and clinical value to radiologists using existing or affordable equipment.
5. More AI for in silico
Biosimulation software technology for drug discovery has been gaining traction; total funding for in silico trials from 2019 to 2020 amassed to $750 million. In 2021, investment increased further to more than $2 billion with contributions from the likes of Insilico Medicine and Exscientia, who raised a combined $480 million in late series funding. Also known as computational medicine, in silico modeling, simulation, and visualization can help predict the chances for success of medicinal compounds and drugs being tested, while also bringing to light possible adverse side effects during the drug discovery process. The main advantage of in silico trials lies in its simulated or virtual context: the drugs being tested are carried out in a virtual setting involving virtual patients, i.e. with no humans or animals. With computer modeling and simulation, the possible consequences of a drug regimen can be observed and even predicted. Thus, in silico trials could protect public health by saving consumers from debilitating side effects or undesirable drug interactions. In silico can also help advance more personalized medicine by letting doctors try out treatment plans. And unlike traditional testing involving live subjects, virtual human models can be reused indefinitely, delivering significant cost savings.
Find more medtech trends analysis throughout the year at Vamstar’s newsroom.
