Medical Devices and Monitors Drive Revenue to $12.8 billion by 2018

http://medcitynews.com/2014/05/convergence-arriving-home-health-market-going-give-revenues-boost/

#MedicalDevices and #FitnessMonitors will drive #HomeHealth from $5.7B to $12,8B in 2018 #Investment in #startup companies exceeds $3B.  This is a significant business in remote monitoring.  The technologies that will be layered onto the sensors will put accountability on the patient because of continuous monitoring and 24/7 access to relevant information.

Non-Invasive Glucose Monitors for Diabetes Care
Diabetes Care costs could possibly be reduced over time in exchange for better and more accountable care that is tracked on medical device monitors.  Most current health insurance plans limit diabetes test strip reimbursement to 4 Strips per day for people with Type 2 Diabetes.   The introduction of non-invasive glucose monitoring would allow significantly more tests to be take each day.  This additional monitoring will allow significantly more insight into providing customized care for diabetic patients.

The fact that there is a "underground market" for test strips indicates a compliance problem for some patients that receive Test Strips through insurance reimbursement or discounted plans.  The introduction of monitors will reduce the black market for Diabetes Monitor Test Strips and increase compliance with existing patients. The result in this case should be better care with better data.

The Diabetes Testing Market has 2 major types of devices.  The surgically implanted continuous monitor and the glucose needle stick that collects a little bit of blood and utilizes test strips.   The market for Diabetes Monitors is over $12 billion.  Google recently made a big splash, although somewhat of a reach technically, when they announced "Google Lens" which would detect glucose in a patient via tears in eyes of a Diabetic. The technology exists for non-invasive glucose monitors to hit the market within 3 years.

The non-invasive monitors will take hundreds of readings throughout a 24 hour period and provide a better view of the patient metabolism, health concerns, accountability, and outcomes.  Combining the monitoring of blood pressure, activity, nicotine, alcohol, and potentially cholesterol as well, will ensure that a healthcare consumer is being accountable in their own care.  Other information from a healthcare exchange, patient portal, or EMR / EHR could be layered onto this stream of glucose monitor data, including, medications, diagnosis, patient weight, etc....