Health Technology leading the way at CES 2023

A week on from CES 2023, I have been reflecting on the things I saw. Despite best efforts, I could not get around and take in all the different exhibitors which totalled an impressive 3,200 this year, but from speaking to people at Element’s booth and meeting our customers around the conference, I left with plenty to think about.

Last year there was a major focus on air quality and lots of UV technology, but this year, I found that healthcare represented the most diverse range of innovation across the conference.

Here are some insights I think will be key for the year ahead in medical technology:

Health and Wellness technology market is growing

I saw a lot of creative solutions trying to simplify both healthcare and wellness by putting health monitoring technology in the home. One of the more memorable was a range of products for your toilet to track and analyse your gut, urinary and general health. These products are linked to apps which can tell you more about what is going on in your body, such as if you have high blood pressure, are ovulating or if your vitamin and hydration levels are off. The insight provided enables you to tweak your diet and make other wellness decisions.

There were a large array of sensing technologies and most visibly portable headbands that could monitor brain activity and aid athletes with high performance by using music-based biofeedback.?Apps that listen to your stomach sounds or use your phone camera to make observations in wellness were also trending.

The need to get a good night’s sleep is a problem we still all want to be solved

There were smart beds such as EgoSportive that had an anti-snoring function that automatically changes the bed’s position to stop your snoring in the middle of the night. What I find most exciting about technology like this is the huge data pool that could be created if a million of these beds were sold. Then you could use predictive analytics and trends to develop new products and drive improvements to further help people in ways we might not even consider.

Korean tech start-up 10minds is trying to solve the same problem with their Motion Pillow. It listens for snoring and will inflate when snoring starts to improve the sleeper’s airflow. This is new technology carrying out an old-school approach of your partner next to you gently (or not) nudging you to stop snoring.

Personalized insight is everywhere

The grey space that exists between monitoring health and diagnostic medical devices continues to be in focus. The technologies (and marketing claims) continue to change and many wellness companies are evaluating their technologies for use in the diagnostic space, which has significant implications on the amount of testing and clinical validation that needs to be performed. There were many conversations of “tech” attendees who were surprised at how difficult this can be – especially when looking at software validation and clinical testing.

Earlier monitoring

NuraLogix’s Anura app shows how perhaps the dreaded selfie could have some use! It uses the camera in a phone and with a 30-second video of your face can identify breathing rate, blood pressure, stress levels and blood sugar levels. I tried this out and thankfully got a clean bill of health (only for investigational use…) but what was interesting was the comprehensive disease risk assessment that looks at your results and likelihood to develop a condition. The mental stress score I thought was also very interesting. There is a free version available if you want to try it.

Quite simply if you are monitoring for a health condition or issue when you are 40 years old rather than 50 then there is a greater chance you can catch a problem before it happens or even a symptom emerges. The continued shift to a predictive health care model was definitely showcased at CES this year.

Taking a product to market

Many of the innovations and new technology on show at CES will be very different when they are a final product realised to the market. This is because they undergo rigorous testing to ensure they are safe, accurate and reliable – from the physical hardware components, electrical safety, and software/algorithm development.

This is where we at Element come in and play a vital role in bringing these exciting new medical technologies to the public. Through the R&D stages, we offer many options such as clinical trial services where we bring patients in and provide data to validate algorithms for manufacturers. This actual human data is key for them to tweak and tailor during the R&D stage and then validation during the regulatory submission process.?

Regulation around medical technology is a rigorous process that can be tricky to navigate for some. We now have over 1,400 experts around the world across 55 locations in 9 countries, working across biopharma testing, environmental monitoring, and consumer product testing so there is always a way we can help you.

If you have any questions about our testing process, please do get in touch and do comment below about your thoughts on medical device technology you are excited by in the year ahead.?