Eoghan Ó Faoláin
Director, Irish Medtech, Ibec
The medtech industry in Ireland is constantly evolving and is now perfectly equipped to advance our position as a global leader.
Ireland is recognised as a global medtech hub, with 450 companies employing 48,000 people to deliver €13 billion in medtech exports, enabling life-changing innovation.
Research and growth in global medtech
The average medtech worldwide research and investment rate is approximately 8% in the sector. Medtech is an innovation leader in Europe with 15,985 patent applications filed with the European Patent Office (EPO) in 2023, representing a 1.3% growth compared with the previous year.
Additionally, continued indigenous R&D investment will ensure Ireland is well-positioned to lead the latest megatrends, with its ecosystem spanning medtech leaders, world-class manufacturers, disruptive startups and internationally recognised research facilities.
The average medtech worldwide research and investment rate is approximately 8% in the sector.
Medtech industry trends
Some ‘game-changers’ impacting the industry include:
- Health with ageing demographics and the rise of chronic diseases driving demands and costs
- Customers with changing behaviours, more personalised healthcare and greater access to insights from data
- Healthtech and convergence with greater multi-stakeholder convergence seeing new technologies developed, along with new business strategies to deliver and protect them (eg. cybersecurity)
- Sustainability with smart manufacturing and connecting devices helping drive efficiencies to reduce the sector’s carbon footprint along with measures to support the circular economy
While industry has invested heavily in R&D to shape the future of healthcare in the face of change with new technologies and continuous professional development, more needs to be done at a government level. Irish medtech is advocating for the formation of an industrial life sciences and national health technology strategy to address the growing healthcare pressures through innovation and collaboration.
National healthtech strategy
The development of a national health technology strategy, led by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, will enable the adoption of industrial policies that promote clustering so that Ireland can realise more strategic cross-sectoral cooperation. This would help us support growth by leveraging the best of the medtech, biopharma and tech sectors — which have an envious presence here — and support cutting-edge innovation to create a new era in transformative healthcare
