i卡會員

In 2025, the medical device industry continued to undergo transformation, shifting from the sale of equipment toward the offering of clinical scenario-driven, system-level solutions. The deployment of AI and digital healthcare have enabled precise decision-making based on data for diagnostics, surgical assistance, and remote monitoring. This not only improves the quality of healthcare, but also makes clinical benefits quantifiable. By decentralizing care, hospital readmission rates have been reduced, workforce utilization has increased, and healthcare services are advancing toward greater intelligence and efficiency. 

Looking ahead to 2026, the global medical device industry is anticipating three key changes. First, the healthcare ecosystems will be developing use cases in health risk prediction and disease prevention through the monitoring of physiological data from a plethora of devices and equipment. This will further integrate medical devices into digital healthcare software and hardware and bring professional medical services into everyday life. 

Second, out-of-hospital care — such as wearable devices and home monitoring—will be connected with in-hospital clinical decision-making in order to establish continuous data streams, strengthen long-term care and precision medicine. Third, regulators and procurement authorities are imposing increasingly stringent requirements for safety and interoperability. Information integration and cybersecurity audits within hospitals will become prerequisites for the development of new healthcare solutions. 

Major markets continue to reinforce regulatory and procurement policies while adopting sandbox mechanisms to validate the clinical effectiveness of digital healthcare using real-world data (RWD). This drives the industry toward innovation centered on clinical evidence and cost-effectiveness. The decentralized care model that emerged during the pandemic has further deepened due to the widespread adoption of wearables and homecare devices enabling the extension of healthcare services from hospitals into communities and households.

To address the dual pressures of an aging population and healthcare workforce shortages, the global medical device industry has entered a new phase of digitalization and decentralization. Artificial intelligence, imaging diagnostics, and cardiovascular devices integrated with digital healthcare solutions are continuing to enhance clinical efficiency and care quality. The center of corporate competitiveness is shifting from product functionality to clinical use case integration, data value management, and long-term service capabilities. Suppliers must establish standardized processes and verifiable outcomes to support consistent care models across institutions and build scalable operational systems. 

Going forward in Taiwan, the key to the development of the medical devices lies in the enhancement of product credibility, market adoption, and cross-institutional usability. Healthcare processes must extend to out-of-hospital care scenarios and ensure data interoperability and compliance with cybersecurity audit standards, these being the critical thresholds for international collaboration and system implementation. 

As major markets around the world are placing increasing emphasis on clinical evidence and cost-effectiveness, those who can deliver comprehensive healthcare solutions will establish channel leadership and command higher valuations. For Taiwanese companies, the ability to integrate products, data, and services will be essential to strengthening competitiveness and expanding into international markets.

According to estimates by BMI Research and the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), the global medical device market (including in vitro diagnostics) is projected to reach USD 691.1 billion in 2025, representing a 5.0% growth from 2024. Despite ongoing geopolitical risks, demand driven by aging populations and chronic diseases will continue to support steady industry growth.