The medical devices industry continues to be a hotbed of patent innovation. Activity is driven by increased need for homecare, preventative treatments, early diagnosis, reducing patient recovery times and improving outcomes, as well as a growing importance in technologies such as machine learning, augmented reality, 5G and digitalization. In the last three years alone, there have been over 710,000 patents filed and granted in the medical devices industry, according to GlobalData’s report on Artificial intelligence in medical: AI for MRI. Buy the report here.
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According to GlobalData’s Technology Foresights, which uses over 155,000 patents to analyze innovation intensity for the medical devices industry, there are 30+ innovation areas that will shape the future of the industry.
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AI-assisted MRI is a key innovation area in artificial intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) assisted Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has the potential to enhance the utility of traditional MRI from manually diagnosing changes in organ features as an indication of a disease to a true diagnostic tool that relates features to specific diseases in an automated and accurate process. This will greatly help the radiologist and other clinicians in interpreting images and provide more accurate and timely diagnoses which will improve patient outcomes.
GlobalData’s analysis also uncovers the companies at the forefront of each innovation area and assesses the potential reach and impact of their patenting activity across different applications and geographies. According to GlobalData, there are 150+ companies, spanning technology vendors, established medical devices companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of AI-assisted MRI.
Key players in AI-assisted MRI – a disruptive innovation in the medical devices industry
‘Application diversity’ measures the number of applications identified for each patent. It broadly splits companies into either ‘niche’ or ‘diversified’ innovators.
‘Geographic reach’ refers to the number of countries each patent is registered in. It reflects the breadth of geographic application intended, ranging from ‘global’ to ‘local’.
Patent volumes related to AI-assisted MRI
| Company | Total patents (2010 - 2022) | Premium intelligence on the world's largest companies |
| Heartflow | 311 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Siemens Healthineers | 130 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Fujifilm | 117 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Koninklijke Philips | 112 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Enlitic | 94 | Unlock Company Profile |
| International Business Machines | 74 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Canon | 70 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Cleerly | 53 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Kheiron Medical Technologies | 45 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Samsung Group | 43 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Stryker | 37 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Heuron | 36 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Siemens | 36 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Hitachi | 32 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Shanghai United Imaging Healthcare | 31 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Olympus | 28 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Vektor Medical | 28 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Bayer | 25 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Nikon | 24 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center | 23 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Tencent | 23 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Toshiba | 21 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Cosmo Pharmaceuticals | 21 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Hyperfine | 19 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Sony Group | 18 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Hyperfine Research | 17 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Terumo | 17 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Johnson & Johnson | 15 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Neurophet | 14 | Unlock Company Profile |
| General Electric | 13 | Unlock Company Profile |
| General Hospital | 12 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Panasonic | 12 | Unlock Company Profile |
| NPL Management | 11 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Medtronic | 11 | Unlock Company Profile |
| ADM Diagnostics | 10 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Abbott Laboratories | 10 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Hologic | 10 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Toshiba Medical Systems | 9 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Mayo Clinic | 9 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Hoya | 9 | Unlock Company Profile |
| GE HealthCare Technologies | 8 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation | 8 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Beijing SenseTime Technology Development | 8 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Arizona Board of Regents | 8 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Healthy io | 8 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Fuel 3D Technologies | 8 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Taipei Veterans General Hospital | 8 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Omniscient Neurotechnology | 8 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Omron | 8 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Medrad | 8 | Unlock Company Profile |
Source: GlobalData Patent Analytics
Heartflow is the leading patent filer in the field of AI-assisted MRI. Some other key patent filers include Siemens Healthineers, Fujifilm, Koninklijke Philips, Enlitic and IBM.
In terms of application diversity, Fuel 3D Technologies leads the pack, followed by NPL Management and Beijing SenseTime Technology Development. By geographic reach, Heartflow holds the top position, followed by Enlitic and Cleerly.
AI has the potential to augment radiology workflows in radiology in many ways. AI-assisted MRI can improve surgical and exam planning, image reconstruction, image analysis, and support clinical decision making. AI-assisted MRI is expected to become a new set of tools in the hands of the radiologist. Such use of AI is likely to be ubiquitous and somewhat invisible to the physician, blending into the background of clinical decision-making processes.
To further understand the key themes and technologies disrupting the medical devices industry, access GlobalData’s latest thematic research report on Medical Devices.
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GlobalData, the leading provider of industry intelligence, provided the underlying data, research, and analysis used to produce this article.
GlobalData’s Patent Analytics tracks patent filings and grants from official offices around the world. Textual analysis and official patent classifications are used to group patents into key thematic areas and link them to specific companies across the world’s largest industries.
