The insurance industry continues to be a hotbed of innovation, with activity driven by growing demand for digitalisation and personalisation. With growing importance of technologies such as telematics, machine learning, big data, deep learning, and data science, insurers are overcoming demographic challenges, low penetration rates, cybercrimes, and fraudulent claims. In the last three years alone, there have been over 11,000 patents filed and granted in the insurance industry, according to GlobalData’s report on Internet of Things in Insurance: Medical device monitoring.
However, not all innovations are equal and nor do they follow a constant upward trend. Instead, their evolution takes the form of an S-shaped curve that reflects their typical lifecycle from early emergence to accelerating adoption, before finally stabilising and reaching maturity.
Identifying where a particular innovation is on this journey, especially those that are in the emerging and accelerating stages, is essential for understanding their current level of adoption and the likely future trajectory and impact they will have.
90 innovations will shape the insurance industry
According to GlobalData’s Technology Foresights, which plots the S-curve for the insurance industry using innovation intensity models built on over 65,000 patents, there are 90 innovation areas that will shape the future of the industry.
Within the emerging innovation stage, remote metering networks and vehicle image capturing sensors are disruptive technologies that are in the early stages of application and should be tracked closely. Vehicle anti-theft systems, fall detection sensing alarms, and vehicle navigation telematics are some of the accelerating innovation areas, where adoption has been steadily increasing. Among maturing innovation areas are property surveillance drones and intrusion sensing IoT networks, which are now well established in the industry.
Innovation S-curve for Internet of Things in the insurance industry
Medical device monitoring is a key innovation area in Internet of Things
The Internet of Things (IoT) enables healthcare practitioners to monitor patients outside of the typical clinical setting. IoT-enabled connected devices give healthcare professionals a constant supply of real-time health data, including heart rate, blood pressure, and glucose monitoring. Patients can now follow their health with the use of connected ultrasounds, thermometers, glucose meters, electrocardiograms, and other devices.
GlobalData’s analysis also uncovers the companies at the forefront of each innovation area and assesses the potential reach and impact of their patenting activity across different applications and geographies. According to GlobalData, there are 50+ companies, spanning technology vendors, established insurance companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of medical device monitoring.
Key players in medical device monitoring – a disruptive innovation in the insurance industry
‘Application diversity’ measures the number of different applications identified for each relevant patent and broadly splits companies into either ‘niche’ or ‘diversified’ innovators.
‘Geographic reach’ refers to the number of different countries each relevant patent is registered in and reflects the breadth of geographic application intended, ranging from ‘global’ to ‘local’.
Patent volumes related to medical device monitoring
| Company | Total patents (2010 - 2021) | Premium intelligence on the world's largest companies |
| Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China | 41 | Unlock company profile |
| Viatris | 24 | Unlock company profile |
| Partners Pharmacy | 24 | Unlock company profile |
| Koninklijke Philips | 23 | Unlock company profile |
| Trupanion | 21 | Unlock company profile |
| Cognizant Technology Solutions | 21 | Unlock company profile |
| International Business Machines | 20 | Unlock company profile |
| Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust | 18 | Unlock company profile |
| UnitedHealth Group | 16 | Unlock company profile |
| Accenture | 15 | Unlock company profile |
| Baxter International | 14 | Unlock company profile |
| Allscripts Healthcare Solutions | 13 | Unlock company profile |
| WellDoc | 12 | Unlock company profile |
| Quality Healthcare Intermediary | 12 | Unlock company profile |
| CVS Health | 12 | Unlock company profile |
| Healthy io | 11 | Unlock company profile |
| Theator | 11 | Unlock company profile |
| DAYA Medicals | 11 | Unlock company profile |
| Oracle | 11 | Unlock company profile |
| State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance | 11 | Unlock company profile |
| Hartford Financial Services Group | 11 | Unlock company profile |
| PokitDok | 11 | Unlock company profile |
| American Well | 11 | Unlock company profile |
| McKesson | 10 | Unlock company profile |
| Microsoft | 10 | Unlock company profile |
| Palantir Technologies | 9 | Unlock company profile |
| Health Hero Network | 9 | Unlock company profile |
| Change Healthcare | 8 | Unlock company profile |
| FirstEnergy | 8 | Unlock company profile |
| Fisher & Paykel Healthcare | 8 | Unlock company profile |
| HTH Worldwide | 8 | Unlock company profile |
| 3M | 8 | Unlock company profile |
| F. Hoffmann-La Roche | 7 | Unlock company profile |
| Fujifilm Holdings | 7 | Unlock company profile |
| Westin Engineering | 7 | Unlock company profile |
| Topcon | 7 | Unlock company profile |
| Hitachi | 6 | Unlock company profile |
| Mastercard | 6 | Unlock company profile |
| Express Scripts Insurance Company | 6 | Unlock company profile |
| Amino | 6 | Unlock company profile |
| New China Life Insurance | 6 | Unlock company profile |
| Robert Bosch Stiftung | 6 | Unlock company profile |
| MDI Achieve | 6 | Unlock company profile |
| Caresyntax | 6 | Unlock company profile |
| Instymeds | 6 | Unlock company profile |
| Fresenius | 5 | Unlock company profile |
| Hi.Q | 5 | Unlock company profile |
| Taikang Insurance Group | 5 | Unlock company profile |
| VF | 5 | Unlock company profile |
| AT&T | 5 | Unlock company profile |
Source: GlobalData Patent Analytics
Viatris is one of the leading patent filers in medicament information system and methods. Their technology enables displaying information on a mobile device's user interface while tracking a medication device. The technique includes the step of displaying an application navigation bar with a how-to button on the user interface of a mobile device with at least one CPU in communication with at least one machine-readable storage medium. Some other key patent filers in medical device monitoring for the insurance industry include Ping An Insurance, Partners Pharmacy, Koninklijke Philips, and Trupanion.
In terms of application diversity, Viatris leads the pack, with Theator and Healthy io in second and third positions, respectively. By means of geographic reach, PokitDok holds the top position, followed by VF and Viatris.
To further understand the key themes and technologies disrupting the insurance industry, access GlobalData’s latest thematic research report on Medical Internet of Things (IoT) in Insurance.
