MedTech Innovation to Empower Patients

Embracing Innovation to Differentiate Pharmaceutical Products in the Market

Many of us have been a patient at some point in our lives.

When we are parents, we help our children through various conditions, ailments, and sicknesses. And as adult children of aging parents, we help our parents through their conditions, ailments, and sicknesses, and step in as caregivers.

In these experiences as caregivers and as patients ourselves, we realize the patient experience has room for improvement. When the patient experience is too difficult, the patient and caregiver must evaluate whether the benefits of the treatment are worth the costs.

To improve the benefits of a treatment for patients, it is up to the life sciences and medical technology industries to innovate, empower patients, and improve the patient experience.

Healthcare Improvement through MedTech Innovation: A Case Study

In 2022, heart disease accounted for about 1 in every 5 deaths in the U.S.(1), and nearly half of U.S. Adults suffer from some form of cardiovascular disease (2). Heart failure cost the nation an estimated $30.7 Billion in 2023, including the cost of health care services, medicines for treatment, and missed days of work (3). 

With the average heart failure hospital stay lasting nine days (4), implementing home-based treatment for heart failure, for instance, has the potential to make an impact through medtech innovation. A common treatment for heart failure, furosemide, has been reformulated for subcutaneous (SC) administration of furosemide at home, freeing the patient to return home sooner and and administer treatments at home. The MedTech Innovation in this case is an on-body injector which allows at-home self-administration of the subcutaneous formulation of furosemide. This opens up the potential to reduce the frequency and length of hospital admissions for the treatment of heart failure, with the potential to alleviate strain on caregivers and social, financial, and healthcare systems. 

In the recent FREEDOM-HF study (5) comparing heart failure costs for at-home subcutaneous (SC) furosemide versus inpatient intravenous (IV) furosemide administration, patients receiving furosemide at home saw a reduction in the mean per patient heart failure healthcare cost of $16,995. 

In another recent study, 95% of surveyed patients strongly preferred in-home care over care in a traditional hospital setting (6). 

This significant reduction in cost and improvement in patient preference shows the importance of MedTech innovation to improve the patient experience and reduce the financial strain and societal healthcare burden. The importance of MedTech Innovation cannot be overstated.

Administration At Home Options

At-home administration of therapeutics allows the patient to receive medications from the comfort of familiar surroundings at home. Home-health services that send a trained nurse to the patient’s home to administer treatments which are not yet available in subcutaneous formulation also make home healthcare available for IV administration. However, the cost and burden of a trained medical professional coming to the patient’s home also comes with other costs. 

In direct research with patients receiving IV treatment at home with a trained medical professional, patients describe discomfort of having a medical professional in their home during the course of the administration – up to six hours – while they receive the IV treatment. Patients have to share personal space, restrooms, entertainment, and mealtimes with a potential stranger in their home. Many patients have vocalized discomfort with the home-health arrangement to the point of choosing to leave home to have their IV administration in a public setting, rather than frequently share space and their private home setting. Home-health skilled care is not always the best option. 

Other methods for patients to self-administer medication at home are needed, and current options include:

Table 1: Types of MedTech Innovation for Parenteral Administration of Biologics

The types of parenteral administration listed in Table 1 include IV administration, which must be administered by a trained medical professional, prefilled syringe administration, which often needs to be administered by a trained medical professional, and options which allow patient self-administration – pen injectors, auto-injectors, and on-body injectors. 

MedTech Innovation to Empower Patients

On-body injectors, auto-injectors and pen injectors are often self-administered by the patient, which allows the patient the freedom to choose the time of the injection. But the on-body injector has an advantage over the auto-injector and pen injector, given that the patient can place / stick the on-body injector to the tissue of their abdomen or thigh (typical SC administration sites), and allow the injection to proceed hands-free. Without the need to hold an auto-injector or pen injector in place for seconds to minutes, the on-body injector has the potential to make injection duration time less relevant and give the patient the ability to go about light daily activities throughout the administration. 

For the handheld pen injector and auto-injectors, as well as pre-filled syringes, there is a balance for how long the injector can be held still while the medication is being delivered into the subcutaneous tissue. When the volume is large, the handheld injection requires a longer duration or amount of time to be administered, causing challenges for the patient in self-administration.

For all of these options, continued innovation is important to extend the ability for reuse and thus reduce waste, and to allow the injection data to be communicated to key stakeholders in the patient’s treatment. Medical devices allowing subcutaneous delivery have the unique potential for remote patient monitoring, real world data collection, and adherence / compliance data to be collected and communicated with the patient’s permission.

Another important innovation in medical devices and drug delivery would allow chronically ill patients, like oncology patients, to have more care at home. Through collection of key biometrics through wearables, paired with MedTech innovations in subcutaneous delivery, chronically ill patients and their caregivers would benefit by being allowed to stay in the comfort of home while receiving care. 

Patient Considerations in MedTech Innovation

Not all patients and conditions are equal when it comes to how a therapeutic is administered. For subcutaneous administration and especially the handheld options, dexterity-challenged patients may need additional features to allow at-home self-administration. A recent study looked at the design of patient preference studies for evaluating device features for high dose subcutaneous administration with Multiple Sclerosis patients (7). This approach and further research are important to ensure MedTech Innovation meets the needs of the target audience and patient population.

Therapeutic Considerations in MedTech Innovation

An important consideration in MedTech Innovation is whether the patient population will adhere to the innovation as prescribed or prefer alternate routes of administration. One question that has persisted is whether patients will accept subcutaneous delivery, which involves a hidden or exposed needle, or if patients prefer pills / capsules / tablets (oral administration), when available as an alternative for their condition.  

In recent months, the question of Will patients accept subcutaneous administration when an oral pill is an option? is beginning to see some answers. Subcutaneous delivery is seeing unprecedented numbers in the recent success of subcutaneous GLP-1 therapies.

There are many factors involved in patient preference, adherence, and choice of therapeutics. Through real-world evidence, one new study shows data for real-world adherence data for subcutaneous self-administration of a complement inhibitor for patients with PNH, for which there is an oral pill option for treatment. The study reports “real-world patients with Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria (PNH) who self-administer pegcetacoplan subcutaneously have adherence rates exceeding the reported real-world adherence rates for oral medications in chronic conditions, especially those with high dosing frequencies.” Pegcetacoplan adherence is estimated at 97% (8).

When pharma manufacturers and medtech innovators partner to remove as many barriers as possible for the patient and improve the patient experience, biopharma and medtech companies see positive impact on patients and corresponding positive business results.

Conclusion

In the case study on MedTech innovation with heart failure drug, furosemide, we saw how innovation allowed an improvement in the patient experience, which had a positive impact on the patient, caregiver, societal healthcare burden, and innovator business results. Subcutaneous administration has the potential to positively impact the patient and caregiver experience by allowing at-home self-administration, which recent studies show have a positive impact on adherence to therapy. And for patients with dexterity challenges, MedTech Innovators and BioPharma manufacturers can partner with regulatory authorities and patient populations to ensure patient-friendly features are built into the MedTech Innovation, to empower the patient and allow greater potential improvement in the patient experience.

Next up in this series on MedTech Innovation, we’ll take a look at the potential for MedTech Innovation to enable remote patient monitoring and the collection of health data to further improve the patient experience.

In case you missed the first in this series on MedTech Innovation, click here to read Improve the Patient Experience and Ignite Business Growth.

Contact Us

We’d love to hear from you. At JL Estep Strategic BioPharma Consulting, we’re passionate about improving the patient experience, and ways we can utilize our experience to help you and your company achieve your goals.

Contact us to learn more about ways we can help you improve the patient experience and see increased business success.

Learn more about us at JL Estep Strategic BioPharma Consulting 

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Author: Jennifer L Estep

Sources:

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Learn the Facts About Heart Disease.” CDC, 8 Feb. 2024, https://www.cdc.gov/heart-disease/about/index.html. Accessed 24 Mar. 2025.
2. Heart Failure Society of America. “Heart Failure Facts & Information.” HFSA, https://hfsa.org/patient-hub/heart-failure-facts-information. Accessed 24 Mar. 2025.
3. Benjamin EJ, Muntner P, Alonso A, et al. Heart disease and stroke statistics—2019 update: a report from the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2019;139(10):e56–e528.
4. Hamer, Helen, and Simon S. Clark. “Can Subcutaneous Furosemide Be Used to Manage Decompensated Heart Failure in the Community?” BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care, vol. 12, no. e6, 2022, p. e763, https://spcare.bmj.com/content/12/e6/e763. Accessed 24 Mar. 2025.
5. Bensimhon D, Weintraub WS, Peacock WF, Alexy T, McLean D, Haas D, Deering KL, Millar SJ, Goodwin MM, Mohr JF. Reduced heart failure-related healthcare costs with Furoscix versus in-hospital intravenous diuresis in heart failure patients: the FREEDOM-HF study. Future Cardiol. 2023 Jun;19(8):385-396. doi: 10.2217/fca-2023-0071. Epub 2023 Aug 23. PMID: 37609913.
6. Tomaszewski, Robert. “Study Shows Caregivers, Patients Prefer ‘Hospital at Home’ Model.” Home Health Care News, 1 Oct. 2024, https://homehealthcarenews.com/2024/10/study-shows-caregivers-patients-prefer-hospital-at-home-model/. Accessed 24 Mar. 2025.
7. Picci, M., Cook, N.S., Jones, B. et al. Designing a Patient Preference Study on Subcutaneous Medical Devices: Incorporating Health Authority Scientific Advice and Patient Perspectives. Ther Innov Regul Sci (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43441-024-00725-3
8. Dingli, D., Mulherin, B., Hillmen, P. et al. “Real-World Adherence with Pegcetacoplan in Patients with Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria: A Multicenter, Observational Study.” Blood, vol. 144, Supplement 1, 2024, p. 5680. American Society of Hematology, https://ashpublications.org/blood/article/144/Supplement%201/5680/526720/Real-World-Adherence-with-Pegcetacoplan-in. Accessed 24 Mar. 2025.