The medical devices industry continues to be a hotbed of innovation, with activity 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 digitalisation. In the last three years alone, there have been over 450,000 patents filed and granted in the medical devices industry, according to GlobalData’s report on Cybersecurity in Medical Devices: Medical device access management. Buy the report here.

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According to GlobalData’s Technology Foresights, which uses over 550,000 patents to analyse innovation intensity for the medical devices industry, there are 150+ innovation areas that will shape the future of the industry. 

Medical device access management is a key innovation area in cybersecurity

Software for controlling access to medical device communications ports can restrict access based on device kinds, manufacturer identification, or even specific device IDs. New portals and applications are being used more often to engage with participants as the healthcare industry becomes more digital. As a result, access to sensitive information that must be secured needs to be divided based on the roles played by the people involved in medical cases.

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 20+ companies, spanning technology vendors, established medical devices companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of medical device access management.

Key players in medical device access management – a disruptive innovation in the medical devices industry

‘Application diversity’ measures the number of different applications identified for each relevant patent and broadly splits companies into either ‘niche’ or ‘diversified’ innovators.

‘Geographic reach’ refers to the number of different countries each relevant patent is registered in and reflects the breadth of geographic application intended, ranging from ‘global’ to ‘local’.

Patent volumes related to medical device access management

Company Total patents (2010 - 2022) Premium intelligence on the world's largest companies
DexCom 98 Unlock Company Profile
FedEx 85 Unlock Company Profile
ARC Devices 64 Unlock Company Profile
Baxter International 37 Unlock Company Profile
Samsung Group 36 Unlock Company Profile
Boston Scientific 33 Unlock Company Profile
Abbott Laboratories 30 Unlock Company Profile
Koninklijke Philips 25 Unlock Company Profile
Medtronic 19 Unlock Company Profile
F. Hoffmann-La Roche 18 Unlock Company Profile
WS Audiology 17 Unlock Company Profile
ICU Medical 16 Unlock Company Profile
Imprivata 16 Unlock Company Profile
Alphabet 13 Unlock Company Profile
Fresenius 9 Unlock Company Profile
Qualcomm 9 Unlock Company Profile
HCmed Innovations 8 Unlock Company Profile
Dragerwerk 7 Unlock Company Profile
NeuroPace 6 Unlock Company Profile
Stryker 6 Unlock Company Profile
International Business Machines 5 Unlock Company Profile
Intel 5 Unlock Company Profile
Deutsche Telekom 5 Unlock Company Profile

Source: GlobalData Patent Analytics

DexCom and FedEx are two of the leading patent filers in medical device access management. Some other leading patent filers include ARC Devices, Baxter International, Samsung Group, Boston Scientific and Koninklijke Philips.

In terms of application diversity, ARC Devices leads, followed by HCmed Innovations and NeuroPace. By geographic reach, WS Audiology leads, followed by Qualcomm and Samsung Group.

The healthcare industry is evolving in terms of adapting new technologies. Enforcing robust business cybersecurity rules requires access management technologies that map access between individual identities and protected resources and offer real-time access control for those links. However, access management systems are becoming more capable, increasingly overlapping, and converging with adjacent security domains as the range of resources to which users need access is developing and new forces affect corporate strategy.

To further understand how cybersecurity is disrupting the medical devices industry, access GlobalData’s latest thematic research report on Cybersecurity in Medical (2020).

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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.