Before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, remote patient monitoring (RPM) and telehealth services were already on the rise but in the spring of 2020, the need for RPM technology and virtual physician visits became an unavoidable necessity. Now, even with the pandemic seemingly more under control, many healthcare providers plan to continue to offer virtual solutions and increase their adoption of remote technology making the demand for RPM devices and services one of the biggest trends in medical device manufacturing of 2021, moving into 2022.

Classes are in full swing and students have (hopefully) settled happily into campus life. For most higher education institutions, it’s not just your first-year students that are new to campus living but, thanks to Covid, many second-year students are just experiencing the ins and outs of their new in-person school life as well. Your upper-class students might be missing ‘the good old days’ of unrestricted social gatherings, bare faces, and the absence of a brain probing nose swab on a weekly basis. Regardless of year, these students have experienced a significant shift in their lives with the new academic year.

While we’re sure you have the most creative, inventive, brilliant minds working on your product development and marketing teams, odds are that they are lacking clairvoyant abilities and can not accurately predict how your customers will react to new product features, branding or messaging.  And since your amazing team isn’t made up of a bunch of psychics, you must gather actual customer feedback prior to launching a new initiative or trust your gut. With budgets as tight as they are right now, do you really want to take your gut’s word for it?

The last few years have unquestionably tested our dependency on a commercial goods supply chain constantly in motion. From pandemics and severe weather to canal blockages and labor strikes, even the most successful companies are currently feeling the effects of the currently clogged chain, regardless of industry. In the wake of the Covid-19 shut down, factories closed or slowed production and the re-opening of the economy has been anything but seamless. There just isn’t enough – people (longshoremen, drivers, and postal workers), places (warehouse space), or things (lumber, computer chips, paint, etc) – to fill the demand for many of the goods that consumers need and want today.

Short answer – pretty important!  Sustainability is no longer the buzzword it once was at the turn of the century – it’s now a ‘must-have’ instead of a ‘nice-to-have’ when it comes to consumer purchasing behaviors and if your company isn’t committed to reducing their environmental footprint, you might find yourself falling behind the competition.