Remote monitoring delivers cost savings and compliance benefits for medical equipment manufacturer

IoT that benefits patients worldwide

Smart, connected medical devices which allow patients to reduce hospital visits and live more independent, productive lives are becoming an increasingly important part of healthcare management. The number of such devices around the world more than doubled in the three years to 2024, and the global healthcare IoT market is forecast to be worth over $322 billion by 2025.^1,2

With hundreds of thousands of medical devices in hospitals, clinics, and patients’ homes around the world, remote product management is vital for this customer—a major player in the healthcare equipment sector with products including cardiac rhythm monitors, heart mapping devices, and kidney stone management. So, when the vendor they relied upon for remote analytics announced it was sunsetting its product, they needed a new solution, fast.

The owner of the existing solution tried to persuade the customer to adopt another of their products—at triple the cost the customer was paying—but couldn’t prove it would work. And with patients’ lives at risk, not to mention often complex regulatory obligations to fulfill, that was too big a risk to take. It was time to look elsewhere.

“We considered a number of options,” explains the company’s IoT Platform Manager, “and rejected them due to either a lack of product maturity or the suppliers’ unwillingness to work closely with us to tailor their product for our specific needs.”

The company soon decided to go with Cumulocity. The out-of-the-box device management solution, capable of handling multiple devices for multiple customers with multiple regulatory obligations.

The Cumulocity platform offers customers 80% of everything they need out of the box, allowing them to start fast and deploy quickly. Then it makes it easy for to create the customized solutions businesses need to set themselves apart from the competition.

“Like so many other things in business, the final choice was about the relationship. Cumulocity really clicked with us: They listened, they answered our questions, and they just seemed to get what we needed to achieve together. It was a great start—especially since it cost less than we were paying before,” says the IoT Platform Manager.

Outcomes and savings from day one

Connecting devices—even at scale—takes a matter of minutes for Cumulocity, thanks to simple SDKs and APIs. And the benefits don’t end there.

“Now every single device around the world is automatically updated in minutes, according to the requirements of its location,” explains the Platform Manager. “And in the rare event a device can only be connected in the field, the process is so simple we can talk people through it over the phone or by chat. No more visits, no unavailability, and the absolute minimum in downtime.”

“We’ve estimated that remote updating alone means Cumulocity is saving us more than $3.5 million every single year in the flights, car rentals, hotels, and other travel costs associated with manual software updates happening around the world. We are already doing procedures with the latest software when the thumb drives we used to use would still be sitting waiting to be shipped.”

Cumulocity makes the latest updates available almost instantly, ready to be approved, and updated at the user’s convenience. So, patients get the latest and greatest care from their devices while healthcare providers know they are compliant with local regulations. Moreover, monitoring these devices remotely improves device lifetime—so they stay more useful for longer, helping ease stretched hospital budgets and boosting the company’s sustainability objectives as it transforms healthcare and improves patients’ lives.

“Data compliance and resiliency are becoming more challenging in the European Union and other regulatory zones. It’s Cumulocity’s job to find the best way forward for our customer” says Stefan Bucholz, VP of Professional Services Delivery for Cumulocity. “As with any healthcare application, there is an absolute need for data security and privacy protection, so our Professional Services team worked with our customer to define a roadmap that could handle a variety of different data sovereignty laws and use cases.”

A strong relationship based on mutual respect

As soon as the customer started using Cumulocity for device management and field services, other internal teams responsible for further devices began to hear about its advantages. They too wanted the cost savings and automated regulatory compliance. And they were hugely impressed by the quality of streaming analytics sent in real time by every device straight to customizable dashboards.

“We were also glowing about the support we had gotten from Cumulocity. First, they helped us solve our device management problem, and now they’re helping us answer new questions about getting more value out of our devices for actionable insights that we might seek to monetize.”

“I always know that when I speak to Cumulocity I’m going to be involved in a clear, transparent process, that they’ll take my questions seriously, and they’ll do their best to find an answer that works for everyone. I’ve been in this business a long time. And trust me: it’s not always like that!”

References

1Omdia, IoT Forecast: Connections, Devices and Service Revenues (Total Addressable Market), 2018-24, August 2020.

2World Economic Forum, Four ways data is improving healthcare, 2019.