Key innovations in next-generation patient monitors
Market growth and commercial opportunities
Key players and emerging competitors
Challenges and barriers to adoption
The future of patient monitors
Patient monitoring devices consist of medical devices that monitor a patient's vital signs and symptoms, which have a significant role in healthcare settings with their capacity to improve real-time diagnoses with a higher level of accuracy as well as improve disease treatment.1
Additionally, the evolution from traditional bedside monitors to wireless, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered, and portable solutions enable medical care to expand past traditional clinical settings into homes, workplaces, and remote locations.1,2
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Key innovations in next-generation patient monitors
Multi-parameter monitoring
Multi-parameter patient monitors (MPMs) are used ubiquitously in intensive care units as well as in general wards to continuously monitor patient health in the following vital parameters: heart rate, blood pressure, respiration rate, and oxygen saturation (SPO2).
This is significant due to the intrinsic relationship between these various vital parameters, as increased blood pressure can lead to decreased heart rate.3
However, innovations in next-generation monitors also enable the measurement of additional parameters, with the patient’s specific requirements being customizable.4
Parameters also include ECG tracking, which consists of an electrocardiographic waveform that characterizes the electrical conduction of the heart.
The continuous monitoring of this parameter enables the detection of malign arrhythmias (irregular heartbeat), tachycardia (irregularly fast heartbeat), or bradycardia (irregularly slow heartbeat).4
AI-driven data analysis
The use of AI in healthcare is rising exponentially, with AI-driven data analysis and machine learning potentially assisting clinicians to interpret complex data within a short time period using specific algorithms.
This can be used within patient assessments to help predict early deterioration in a patient’s health status, as well as to predict vital signs in combination with laboratory results to diagnose a patient at an earlier stage, with an accuracy of 80%, as reported by a 2021 study.2,5
Early warning scores (EWS), which include manually calculated screening metrics, can also be advanced using AI and machine learning. It can also be applied to various acute general medical and surgical wards, as well as ambulatory and home care environments, with a higher performance and greater accuracy in predicting early patient deterioration than conventional manual approaches.2
Wireless and wearable monitors
Remote patient monitoring has become a common healthcare application that can aid doctors in monitoring patients with an acute or chronic disorder in various locations, as well as in the elderly within in-home care and hospitalized patients.2
Personalized health monitors can be used to predict patient mobility, with advice being available from healthcare centers near the location of the user in the event of an emergency.2
Wearable technology, starting with basic fitness trackers, has the potential to transform the healthcare industry. It is being increasingly embraced to monitor and manage patient health.
Real-time data can provide healthcare professionals with indications of baseline value deviations in patients, enabling early intervention.6
More specifically, they have become vital tools for managing chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and respiratory conditions.6
Touchscreen and cloud integration
Data can be collected and stored in cloud services for further analysis via machine learning approaches, which have the potential to predict or analyze the information.
This process can be used to predict any aberrant events in the near future dependent on the known baseline values of vital parameters, which can then inform or update healthcare professionals.2
Additionally, a wireless body area network (WBAN), which connects wireless sensors on a patient’s body to the network, can transmit data from wireless sensors to local and global networks.
While this expansion can have challenges, integrating sensors and remote patient devices can lead to sensor interoperability, and combining heterogeneous data pools can enable data interoperability in wireless sensor networks.2
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Market growth and commercial opportunities
The global patient monitoring devices market size has been valued at USD 48.23 billion in 2023, with this growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.97% from 2023 to 2033.7
Additionally, the worldwide patient monitoring devices market size has been predicted to reach USD 103.82 billion by 2033, with North America being forecasted to grow the fastest during this period and Asia Pacific being projected to hold the largest share.7
Driving factors for increased demand for wireless monitoring devices in the patient monitoring market include the ability to overcome traditional patient monitoring approaches that can reduce a patient’s mobility. Wireless technologies enable more freedom in mobility and provide a patient-centered approach to healthcare.7
Additionally, real-time recording of vital signs and health indicators provides a comprehensive view of patient health, especially with an aging population and increased chronic disease rates.2
Investment trends and research and development funding seem to be leaning the highest in blood pressure monitors, with this segment expecting to have the largest share of the global patient monitoring devices market.7
Key players and emerging competitors
Leading manufacturers in this industry include Medtronic Plc, Mindray Medical, GE Healthcare, Philips Healthcare, Nihon Kohden, and others.7
Medtronic is a global leader in healthcare technology based in Ireland. It offers innovative solutions for hypertension, chronic pain, mental health, and other disorders.
In March 2025, Medtronic launched a 10-year global initiative that aims to propel one million low-income students into health technology careers. Their mission outside of this initiative is to ‘alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life’ with their technologies and therapies treating 70 health conditions.8
A recent key market development included 3M, a multinational company based in the U.S., that announced an advancement in their medical adhesive in February 2023, which can attach to the skin and is aimed to be used in conjunction with a range of health monitors, sensors and long-term medical wearables.
Their new advancement consisted of increasing the longevity of wear, from up to 14 days prior to 2022, to double this duration in order to increase patient care.7
Additionally, another company named Biobeat, which is a global manufacturer of wearable remote patient monitoring devices, announced in January 2023 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted 510(k) clearance to monitor health indicators such as stroke volume, cardiac output, cuffless blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation, pulse rate, respiratory rate, and body temperature.7
Challenges and barriers to adoption
A systematic review on the benefits and challenges of remote patient monitoring as perceived by healthcare practitioners reported the results of a study that interviewed nine healthcare practitioners about their experiences with consumer and medical wearables for monitoring patients with diabetes and sleep disorders.9
The study authors found a lack of support and advice for patients and guidelines for use in healthcare settings, which resulted in unreliable data collection overall.
Additionally, budget constraints within hospitals and healthcare systems led to limited staffing, which impacted the availability of advice.9
Additionally, data privacy and security issues are a known challenge for technology-enabled applications, and interoperability and integration can become obstacles for advanced monitoring devices, as the transmission of data may require standard data transmission networks such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.2
Regulatory and compliance hurdles for next-generation patient monitors are also a challenge for manufacturers and consumers, with many regulatory agencies utilizing diverse strategies to ensure the safety and efficacy of medical technologies.10
The FDA implements a rigorous approval process with pre- and post-market phases and continuous monitoring of the device's performance after being entered into the market.10
The CE mark is a necessary requirement for medical devices sold in the Economic European Area (EEA), certifying these medical devices meet all the related European Union regulations for the free movement of products.10
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The future of patient monitors
With the growth of patient monitoring devices, further advancement in this area seems to be focused on miniaturization, battery life, connectivity, and AI-powered automation.2,6
The next generation of patient monitors, which utilize advanced technology, result in significant amounts of data and storing this using cloud computing technology may require transmission in the Internet of Things (IoT) platform to the cloud using Fifth Generation Internet network (5G).
The storage and sharing of this data with various parties for trend analysis may be revolutionary for patient-centered medicine approaches and personalized medicine.2
Machine learning through deep learning models have also shown significant improvement in accuracy than baseline models, which can aid in enhancing predictive patient monitoring for overall more effective patient care.2
References
- [Awad_2021] Awad A, Trenfield SJ, Pollard TD, et al. Connected healthcare: Improving Patient Care Using Digital Health Technologies. Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews. 2021;178:113958. doi:10.1016/j.addr.2021.113958.
- [Shaik_2023] Shaik T, Tao X, Higgins N, et al. Remote Patient Monitoring Using Artificial Intelligence: Current State, Applications, and Challenges. WIREs Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery. 2023;13(2). doi:10.1002/widm.1485.
- [Vaijeyanthi 2014] Vaijeyanthi V, Vishnuprasad K, Kumar CS, et al. Towards Enhancing the Performance of Multi‐Parameter Patient Monitors. Healthcare Technology Letters. 2014;1(1):19-20. doi:10.1049/htl.2013.0041.
- [magazine.morettispa] Multi-Parameter Monitors: What They Monitor and How to Choose Them. Magazine Moretti. https://magazine.morettispa.com/en/multi-parameter-monitors-what-they-monitor-and-how-to-choose-them/. Published January 11, 2022. Accessed March 14, 2025.
- [De silva 2021] Da Silva DB, Schmidt D, Da Costa CA, Da Rosa Righi R, Eskofier B. DeepSigns: A Predictive Model Based on Deep Learning for the Early Detection of Patient Health Deterioration. Expert Systems with Applications. 2021;165:113905. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2020.113905.
- [Adeghe_2024] Adeghe EP, Okolo CA, Ojeyinka OT. A Review of Wearable Technology in Healthcare: Monitoring Patient Health and Enhancing Outcomes. Open Access Research Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies. 2024;7(1):142-148. doi:10.53022/oarjms.2024.7.1.0019.
- [Spherical insights] Patient Monitoring Devices Market Size, Share, Forecast 2033. Spherical Insights. https://www.sphericalinsights.com/reports/patient-monitoring-devices-market. Accessed March 14, 2025.
- [Medtronic] Medtronic launches bold 10-year global initiative to propel 1M low-income students into Health Tech Careers. Medtronic News. https://news.medtronic.com/Medtronic-launches-bold-10-year-global-initiative-to-propel-1M-low-income-students-into-health-tech-careers. Published March 3, 2025. Accessed March 14, 2025.
- [Serrano_2023] Serrano LP, Maita KC, Avila FR, et al. Benefits and Challenges of Remote Patient Monitoring as Perceived by Health Care Practitioners: A Systematic Review. The Permanente Journal. 2023;27(4):100-111. doi:10.7812/tpp/23.022.
- [Amaral 2024] Amaral C, Paiva M, Rodrigues AR, Veiga F, Bell V. Global Regulatory Challenges for Medical Devices: Impact on Innovation and Market Access. Applied Sciences. 2024;14(20):9304. doi:10.3390/app14209304.