MedTech’s next frontier: prioritizing patient experience for better outcomes
Published June 12, 2025
- Life Sciences
Key takeaways
Within a rapidly evolving landscape, Medtech firms have a huge opportunity to enhance patient experiences. In this article, you’ll discover how MedTech companies can elevate patient experiences to build trust and improve health outcomes:
- Learn from leading pharma examples and beyond
- Explore opportunities for integrating patient feedback and personalized support
- Find out how technology can empower patients in their healthcare journeys
We share key strategies for building patient partnerships, measuring impact, and driving cultural change, helping MedTech organizations stay competitive.
In recent years, the importance of patient experience has become a focal point in the healthcare sector. Whilst many pharmaceutical companies have made significant strides in integrating patient insights and support into their strategies, MedTech organisations have room to grow.
As MedTech continues to expand – expecting to reach to reach $770bn by 2029 up from $630bn in 2025 – the gap presents both a challenge and an opportunity for the big MedTech firms to enhance their patient engagement strategies, deliver enhanced experiences and improve overall healthcare outcomes.
In practice, ‘patient experience’ refers to activities that aim to understand and meet patient needs, ensuring smooth and personalized interactions that build trust, empowerment and satisfaction. The goal is to make every part of the healthcare journey positive and supportive, ultimately improving health outcomes.
In the MedTech sector, many products such as orthopaedic implants, cardiovascular devices, diabetes management and patient remote monitoring solutions, can benefit from a similar approach to pharma with an added focus on addressing patients’ wider challenges along the patient journey. Supporting patients’ unmet needs whilst they are using these products can support better adherence to health regimens, reduce recovery/rehabilitation lead times and positively impact health outcomes.
Of course, other MedTech products may not lend themselves easily to such an approach – for example, for surgical technology and operating instruments the priority, naturally, is the HCP’s experience. However, even when considering the value proposition of, for example, surgery equipment, it can pay to factor in the potential impact on experiences (which may perhaps be improved through reduced length of hospital stays/visits) as well as the health outcomes themselves.
By uplifting patient experience, MedTech firms can influence their reputation in a sustainable & authentic way.
In an era where patients have more choices and access to information than ever before, companies that demonstrate a commitment to patient-centric care stand out. The strategic benefits are clear: innovation that is targeted on actual patient needs naturally fosters increased trust and loyalty over the long-term.
And there are some great examples of leadership in MedTech, particularly in how patient communities are engaged with:
- Johnson & Johnson’s “My Health Can’t Wait” campaign encourages patients to prioritize their health and not delay treatments, and which began with underserved communities. . Such programs can improve engagement and reinforce commitment to initiating treatment, with related longer term adherence benefits too.
- Edwards Lifesciences has expanded its patient engagement efforts, recognizing the value of listening to patients and incorporating their feedback into product development. As part of their ‘experience program’, Edwards hosts events where patients can participate in discussions to improve the patient-caregiver experience. It fosters a sense of community among patients and provides valuable feedback, helping Edwards refine their products and services to better meet patient needs.
- Philips and Medtronic Advocacy Partnership: Philips and Medtronic Neurovascular have formed a strategic advocacy partnership to improve access to timely stroke diagnosis and treatment. By joining the World Stroke Organization Advocacy Coalition, they aim to raise public awareness, expand stroke-ready hospitals, and leverage advanced technologies for integrated stroke care.
Making a difference: learnings from pharma organizations
For all those great MedTech case studies, it remains true that pharmaceutical companies have set the bar in this area, not only forging effective partnerships with patient advocacy groups, but involving patients in clinical trials and providing comprehensive support programs, post-prescription, that address a wide range of physical, social and emotional needs.
Pharma as a whole could still do more, but many have realised the benefits of a richer relationship with the patients on their treatments, and begun to deliver tangible changes to the experience throughout the journey.
5 ways pharma is improving patient experience
In our experience at Wavestone, there are five tangible ways in which many pharma companies have driven meaningful differences and better experiences for patients on their treatments:
The most impactful support programs are based on evidenced needs with a behavioral science view of beliefs and behaviors, and a practical understanding of how these may differ by country, influenced by health systems and social norms. And there are innovative ways of doing this: A Life in Day is an example of a company that offers truly immersive experiences as a starting point.
In pharma, the most effective support programs start with behavioral truths, not assumptions. They’re built on the real reasons patients struggle to start or stay on treatment – identity, motivation, friction – not just gaps in knowledge. The most impactful initiatives are a world away from one-off education campaigns and involve coordinated interventions that are tailored for individuals and have a mix of empathetically designed human and digital interactions.
AstraZeneca and AbbVie are two leaders in this zone with published results. A recent study on AstraZeneca’s PSP showed high levels of satisfaction and persistence, with indications of positive outcomes including reduced hospitalization and higher disease control scores.
In many cases, Pharma has shifted their perspective to see patient organizations as equal players in healthcare. Collaborating with patient organizations makes sense for many reasons, not least their ability to impact disease and treatment awareness, and their increasing influence on disease-related policy changes. ViiV Healthcare has been consistently recognized as a leader in this field, working with over 200 patient organizations in HIV and most recently installing their Global Community Panel. Other leading examples are Boehringer’s Global Patient Partnership Initiative Community, Gilead’s Community Advisory Boards for HIV treatment and Servier’s Patient Advisory Council Ecosystem (SPACE).
Sanofi Genzyme’s Patient Community Promise is a set of commitments and measurements developed with input from over 80 patient and caregiver organizations worldwide. It includes addressing gaps in the broader healthcare ecosystem with respect to more deeply embedding patient voice and the firm’s own accountability. Servier founded a patient expert board ahead of launching a new R&D institute and published the learnings
What are the macro-opportunities for MedTech?
While MedTech companies do not follow the same clinical trial approach, there is a requirement for patient feedback to be incorporated into the R&D process.
Integrating patient feedback into design and development not only improves the functionality and usability of medical devices but also ensures they meet the real-world needs of patients.
“We see potential to evolve the process with greater and deeper patient participation, benefiting product improvements and new releases – and potentially in a much faster, more iterative way than pharma is able to approach design & development”.
Lara Rogers, MedTech Transformation Advisor
Harnessing AI-powered analytics and predictive modelling capabilities provides the step change here, enabling sentiment analysis, insights and trends to be rapidly drawn from patient feedback from all sources.
Providing support at the moment its needed, to meet many of the holistic needs of patients, can benefit overall health outcomes. Think of MedTech products that require ongoing interaction and usage, such as insulin pumps or cardiac implants – when patients feel supported and understood, they’re far more likely to follow medical advice and maintain their health regimens.
“Support needs to meet patients not just where they are clinically, but emotionally and practically. If it feels irrelevant, too late, or too much, it won’t stick or become part of routine use – no matter how smart or user-friendly the tech is”.
Dr Nicola Davies, Behavioral Scientist
Algorithms can provide personalized recommendations and support to patients based on their unique health data and usage patterns, whilst empathetic AI-driven virtual assistants can offer 24/7 support and guidance on device usage and maintenance. But technology is not the only answer, we know from pharma that the human touch remains highly valued and impactful.
The accelerated transition towards virtual care and remote monitoring is highlighting the need for MedTech companies to adapt. Patients now expect seamless, tech-enabled interactions that empower them to manage their health from home.
“Technological innovations are equipping us with the ability to listen more closely and respond more precisely to patient needs – not only supporting better care but enabling better experiences.”
Sharon Yau, Patient Solutions Design Expert
In the future, greater emphasis on remote monitoring will go hand-in-hand with life-saving drugs. With oncology as an example, the development of new drug and modalities will continue to improve overall survivability rates. In parallel, leading pharma companies are integrating support opportunities to enhance quality of life for cancer patients, with managing side effects and supporting emotional and coping strategies as key priorities.
In this near-future world where patients are receiving support from pharma alongside their medications, what is the role of MedTech? In the example of remote monitoring, the challenge is to provide solutions that deliver intuitive and adaptive user experiences that seamlessly fit into the overall care support plan. And to avoid overburdening patients with multiple and/or overlapping support solutions, partnership opportunities will need to be identified to simplify the experience.
HTAs focus specifically on the added value of a health technology in comparison with other new or existing health technologies. A more patient-centred approach is now being demanded through regulation – it is mandated that patients and patient groups are consulted about health technology assessments.
“By engaging early and openly with patient organizations and patient advocates, companies will ensure that these parties will be suitably aware of and educated about new technologies when HTA assessments happen”.
Michael George, Patient Communications & Advocacy Leader
The direction of travel here is in increased transparency, patient involvement and systematic collaboration. The opportunity for MedTech is to lead the way in terms of embedding effective collaboration processes into their ways of working.
Three practical recommendations for MedTech Leaders
- Accelerate an active patient engagement culture by committing to open, transparent and equal partnerships with relevant patient organizations. Invest in initiatives that facilitate deeper and more sustainable links with patient communities.
- Use customer experience approaches to stratify patient ‘customers’ and truly understand lived experiences and how outcomes may be impacted along the patient journey.
- Ensure solutions are user-friendly and provide seamless experiences for patients managing their health from home and collaborate with healthcare providers to align these technologies with broader care plans.
- Review existing mechanisms for collecting and analyzing patient feedback throughout the product lifecycle and look for automated ways to gain richer feedback faster. This includes pre-market research, design, development, as well as post-market surveillance.
- Regularly involve patients in focus groups and usability testing to ensure products meet their needs and preferences. Complement with open lines of communication with patients to solicit real-time feedback and keep patients informed. Where applicable, share those insights with HCP partners.
- Examine your ‘insights to action’ process for opportunities to improve. Beyond the capture of the insights, how confident are you that they are being effectively analyzed and acted upon, and is it fast enough?
- Evaluate your current patient experience offerings and strategy with external benchmarks to identify the opportunities and ‘white space’.
- Prioritize innovations that increase quality of life, decrease patient pathway lead times and enhance recovery outcomes.
- Develop AI algorithms to measure and analyze patient experience metrics, providing deeper insights into the effectiveness of support interventions. Demonstrate the value and collaborate with healthcare providers to align these technologies with broader care plans.
Case for (more) cultural change?
At Wavestone, we believe that MedTech companies have a significant opportunity to catch up with their pharmaceutical counterparts and deliver on exceptional patient experiences, helping them to stay relevant and competitive in a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape.
“It needs to start with a mindset to change the culture to one where the patient experience is intrinsic to the organisational decision making”
Lara Rogers, MedTech Transformation Advisor
By prioritizing patient engagement, integrating feedback into product development, and embracing digital health solutions empathetically, MedTech firms can enhance experiences, improve health outcomes, and build lasting trust.
