A global crisis unlike any other has been made public by COVID-19. Communities and economies all across the world are facing unprecedented challenges from the pandemic's speed and scope of devastation. This is especially clear where healthcare is provided on the ground. As various COVID-19 disease variants proliferate across the globe, health services have transferred major resources to COVID-19 intervention activities.

COVID-19 has propelled the Medtech sector to the forefront due to the exceptional need for diagnostic testing, personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators, and other crucial medical products.

To quickly adapt to the urgent needs brought on by this crisis, the medical technology industry has repositioned itself around the healthcare supply chain. Medtech businesses should consider additional imperatives to enhance crisis readiness and recovery planning, though, in light of recent occurrences. Creating and validating a large number of examples for strategies and production capacity would be necessary for both identifying areas of problem and opportunity and working through the scenario.

Numbers have also supported the sector's improvements; Supplyframe's study, which concentrated on risk mitigation, information accuracy, and recovery, shows how COVID-19 has affected the MedTech sector.

The top three challenges to the Medtech supply chain identified by the report were supply shortages (15%), a lack of substitutes (12%), and production delays (12%). Increased supply chain resilience by raising the qualifications of diverse vendors during the product design phase was the most frequently stated strategy for lowering these risks.

Virtual health and new business models

At the beginning of 2020, 80% of doctors in the US did not use virtual health in their patient relationships, according to an EY survey. However, 95% had increased their use of virtual media six months later, with 58% of the doctors doing so by a factor of more than 50%. By every measure, the shift to virtualized, remote-operated medical business models is progressing more quickly than anyone could have anticipated at the beginning of 2020.

Alterations to the medical supply chain

The Medtech sector is fully aware of the shortcomings of the healthcare supply chain, such as lack of transparency, rigid legacy practices, and many other inefficiencies. Businesses considered extending their use of new technology to address these issues, save costs, and assist satisfy their clients' increasing needs. Concerns concerning supply chain visibility and productivity were also at the core of market disputes.