Leading medical devices companies in the cloud computing theme  

The future of the medical devices industry will be shaped by a range of disruptive themes, with cloud computing one of the themes that will have a significant impact on mining companies. 

Cloud computing refers to the provision of information technology (IT) infrastructure and platform services to provide a flexible, scalable, and on-demand IT environment. At the simplest level of abstraction, it may refer only to IT infrastructure, such as a remotely hosted server. While at the furthest level of abstraction, it refers to a remotely hosted software application together with all the computing elements required to provide that software, such as a data center, networking equipment, and servers.  

Given the enormous amount of data generated, stored, and used by the medical devices industry, cloud computing can break down data silos across the whole medical devices value chain to transform processes, from clinical trial, manufacturing, sales, and marketing. Using the cloud enables medical devices to wirelessly collect data for storage, computation, accessibility, and sharing. Frequent alerts can be sent if data breaches occur, allowing for backup and recovery. Device manufacturers can also provide big data services to their clients even if the client has no computing hardware. Furthermore, with wearable technology surging in popularity, patients can use devices at their comfort level and upload indicators to the cloud where the physician can assess the data. 

However, not all companies are equal when it comes to their capabilities and investments in the key themes that matter most to their industry. Understanding how companies are positioned and ranked in the most important themes can be a key leading indicator of their future earnings potential and relative competitive position.  

According to GlobalData’s report Cloud Computing in Healthcare, leading adopters of cloud computing include: Becton Dickinson, Roche, 3M, GE Healthcare, Philips, Siemens Healthineers, Johnson & Johnson, Illumina, Intuitive Surgical. 

Becton Dickinson

Medical device manufacturer Becton Dickinson has implemented cloud solutions to improve business agility, consolidate operations, and support its connected health products. It uses Microsoft Azure to support data storage, sharing, and analysis for connected devices, SAP for an on-premise cloud platform, and Thales for its Vormetric data security platform. Other cloud-related deals have included its 2017 partnership with FlowJo to design a cloud-based collaborative platform for single-cell research and its partnership with UniteOR for a cloud-based tracking solution for healthcare staff in operating theatres.  

Becton Dickinson is significantly increasing its investment in cloud solutions for healthcare customers. In July 2022, it acquired MedKeeper, a cloud-based pharmacy management provider. In September 2022, it launched Research Cloud, a SaaS solution to streamline the flow cytometry workflow to enable higherquality experiments with faster time to insight for scientists. As a cloud-based open system, future releases will provide users with even more intuitive and powerful capabilities alongside growing resources from Becton Dickinson, including panel design education sessions, e-books, and dedicated applications support. 

Roche

Drug and diagnostics developer Roche is another leading adopter of cloud computing in the medical devices and pharma ecosystem. Roche relies upon cloud vendors across its business operations, from accelerating drug discovery and development to securely sharing data internally and externally with regulators. In 2021 and 2022 alone, Roche, and its subsidiaries Chugai Pharmaceutical and Genentech, publicly announced cloud partnerships with prestigious vendors, including AWS, Snowflake, Flywheel, and Veeva Systems. Additionally, Roche has developed its cloud platform products; for example, the RocheDiabetes Care Platform provides fast insights into diabetic patient medication adherence, while Roche’s uPath enterprise software is a platform for pathology laboratory workflow management, which connects with Roche slide scanners. Roche has also acquired companies with cloud offerings. For example, Flatiron Health, acquired in 2018, offers cloud EMR tools. 

In 2022, Roche partnered with Microsoft, whereby the company’s division in Egypt, and eventually divisions across the Middle East, will explore developing early cancer detection software solutions running on Microsoft Azure.  

Johnson & Johnson

J&J was ahead of the curve in terms of cloud adoption. In 2014, J&J used AWS to build its hybrid cloud strategy in a five-year program. It is focused on cloud solutions to improve workflow, enhance surgical decision making for a better overall customer experience, and improve patient and economic outcomes. 

In 2022, Johnson Medical Devices Companies (JJDMC), a subsidiary of J&J, inked a multi-year partnership with Microsoft under which it selected Microsoft as its preferred cloud provider. Microsoft has agreed to offer a variety of its cloud computing capabilities, including AI, ML and data analytics. The partnership has allowed JJDMC to build a platform to collect and process data from hospital and patient records, to connect and manage several IoT-enabled medical devices and track its digital surgery ecosystem from one dashboard. JJDMC also plans to use the Azure Digital Twin platform for developing digital twins of medical devices for predictive maintenance.