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IoMT Meets New Healthcare Needs: 3 MedTech Trends to Watch

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The COVID-19 pandemic has in a way speeded up the pace of progress of Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). Before the pandemic, while many other sectors were fast grasping the concept of Internet of Things (IoT), the medical device sector took tiny steps and partially adopted the advancements and benefits of smart healthcare.

However, thanks to the year-long pandemic-led healthcare emergencies, automated and computer-assisted medical procedures are the need of the hour. The importance of IoMT has been particularly felt since the month of April when majority of the countries went for total or limited lockdowns, halting their non-essential and/or non-COVID-19 healthcare operations for an indefinite period.

Growing Importance of IoMT Amid the Pandemic

Going by a ResearchGate report, in this period, IoMT successfully worked toward alleviating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic through ways like manufacturing things needed to tackle this infection, providing and automating clinical assistance and treatment to the infected patient to lessen the burden of specialists; learning from experience and generating better machine learning models, making a few developments with the assistance of advance assembling and computerized innovations, and developing better hazard appraisal.

A study by Research and Markets released on Nov 25showed that this market is expected to witness a 37.1% spike in 2021 and thereafter will continue to grow to reach $508.8 billion by 2027. Per the report, in the past eight months, from telemedicine to remote patient monitoring and management, this new service delivery platforms have been adopted at lightning speeds. There has been a 60% drop in “Doctor near me” search whereas online consultations and online pharmacy sales have skyrocketed by 350% and 600%, respectively.

Needless to say, by now investors should understand the above indications well and start to focus on IoMT centric investment.

Three Major IoMT Trends to Keep an Eye On

One IoMT trend that has been in vogue since the onset of the pandemic is telemedicine. It enables health care professionals to diagnose and treat patients remotely through the use of telecommunications technology. In fact, telemedicine stocks got a boost when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked healthcare service communities to increase the adoption of telemedicine earlier in 2020.

In this regard, Teladoc Health (TDOC - Free Report) is currently enabling health systems to provide virtual care on a larger scale through the technology-driven capabilities of both Teladoc Health and its newly-acquired InTouch Health platform. Year to date, this Zacks Rank #3 stock has soared 127%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

 

The other trend worth mentioning is remote patient monitoring.  It is a form of AI-driven technology, which has been designed to collect patient data outside of traditional healthcare settings and carefully monitor patient health status. The FDA has approved the expanded use of remote patient monitoring technologies with the aim of minimizing hospital visits, thereby reducing the risk of exposure to the virus.

In this regard, PRA Health has enhanced its commercial Health Harmony COVID-19 Monitoring Program by integrating it with the Microsoft Healthcare Bot service. Users of the PRA Health Harmony digital platform, enrolled under the organization’s COVID-19 Monitoring Program, can use the AI-based chatbot, which recognizes and responds to COVID-19-related queries. Over the past six months, this Zacks Rank #3 stock has improved 8%.

Last but not the least, investors should also focus on digital diabetes management stocks now. These IoMT stocks are gaining traction after diabetes was recognized as one of the major COVID-19 comorbidities. Further, amid the pandemic, the insurance industry has started financing its customers to use non-traditional digital health services while being confined to their homes.

DexCom (DXCM - Free Report) is the first company to have a CGM system approved by the FDA, which was the primary reason behind it becoming a major player in the market. The company’s FDA-cleared CGM system — the DexCom G4 Platinum — has been contributing significantly to the company’s top line. Earlier this year, the company made Dexcom CGM systems available in the United States for utilization in hospitals and other healthcare facilities in order to help frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Year to date, this Zacks Rank #3 stock has soared 42.9%.

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