COVID-19 is here: Medtech may never be the same

The COVID-19 pandemic could accelerate hospital transformation, endanger medical device startups — and much more. Here’s what industry insiders think.

The COVID-19 pandemic promises to change nearly every aspect of our lives — remote working, social distancing and Zoom-bombing likely will be part of our professional lexicon for years to come. But the pandemic also will bring big changes to the medtech industry, which got caught in the center of some political, geopolitical and yes — medical — controversies.

While we still haven’t emerged from the other side, it’s not too early to begin assessing what those changes might look like. Medical Design & Outsourcing surveyed medtech professionals about how their industry performed during the recent emergency and gauged how it might change to meet future challenges.

Sixty percent of the 57 respondents — many of them medtech executives, engineers and salespeople — described their sector’s performance as “excellent” or “good,” but nearly 75% said medtech companies will need to operate differently at this time next year.

“We’re going to learn a lot from the coronavirus experience,” said Chris Hartlage, director of global business development and customer service for assembly technologies at Emerson in Danbury, Conn. “And we’re going to carry those lessons into traditional medical device and PPE manufacturing as we move beyond the coronavirus world.”

What will those lessons look like? Medtech executives suggested the spots where the industry might have to change.

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