The global MedTech industry is thriving. According to EY’s Pulse of the MedTech Industry 2025, annual revenues have surpassed US$584 billion, marking seven consecutive years of growth. Venture investment is up 20%, and despite tariff challenges and global uncertainty, the sector remains one of the healthiest within healthcare.
But beneath these impressive numbers lies a more nuanced story. EY’s analysis reveals a widening performance gap between an elite group of high-growth MedTech leaders and the rest of the market. These outperformers are achieving stronger valuations, higher margins, and faster growth -not simply because they innovate more, but because they convert innovation into measurable value.
The report’s key message is clear: innovation alone isn’t enough. To “earn the right to grow,” MedTech companies must demonstrate that every dollar invested in R&D translates into meaningful returns - through commercialisation, adoption, and long-term impact.
R&D Efficiency: The New Leadership Metric
EY identifies return on invested capital in R&D (ROICR&D) as the single most critical metric for sustained growth and shareholder confidence. Companies that deploy capital efficiently; channelling investment into differentiated, high-growth areas and executing effectively; consistently outperform the market.
This is where design plays a pivotal role. Good design doesn’t just make technology usable; it ensures that R&D outcomes become clinically validated, manufacturable, and scalable products that align with user needs and regulatory frameworks. In other words, design converts investment into tangible value.
At Maddison, we’ve seen this across every category; from point-of-care diagnostics to AI-enabled wearables and rehabilitation technologies. Our clients don’t simply need a device that works; they need a product that’s safe, intuitive, compliant, and commercially viable. Design is what bridges that gap.
Design as a Growth Enabler
EY’s report highlights that the market now rewards companies that can show executional excellence; not just inventive potential. Top-performing MedTechs are shifting from generalised R&D spending to design-led, evidence-driven development.
Three principles underpin this approach:
- Human-centred design: User experience is now inseparable from clinical performance. Devices that are intuitive, comfortable, and easy to integrate into real-world workflows drive faster adoption and better outcomes.
- Design for manufacturability and compliance: Scaling innovation requires foresight — designing with ISO 13485, FDA, and MDR pathways in mind to avoid costly rework and delays.
- Value-focused execution: Each design decision should strengthen the product’s commercial potential — reducing time-to-market, improving reliability, and lowering lifecycle cost.
When these elements align, design ceases to be a downstream service and becomes a strategic growth lever, one that directly influences valuation, investor confidence, and market share.
Design That Means Business
EY’s analysis shows that high-growth MedTech leaders share a common DNA: they focus on differentiated innovation, disciplined execution, and continuous reinvestment into R&D efficiency. These companies prove their right to grow not through scale alone, but through precision - every function working to deliver measurable value.
Maddison’s philosophy of Design That Means Business echoes this mindset. We help MedTech innovators translate technical potential into market-ready solutions that perform - commercially, clinically, and operationally.
Take diagnostic platforms, for instance. Our experience with handheld and modular systems demonstrates how early design decisions influence not only usability and workflow efficiency but also unit economics and scalability. Similarly, in assisted-living and wearable technologies, empathetic, user-driven design directly determines adoption and compliance - the ultimate measure of market success.
From Innovation to Impact
The 2025 EY report concludes that MedTech’s next decade will be defined by how effectively companies manage capital, integrate acquisitions, and align their operating models for growth. But at its core, success still depends on the same truth: growth follows confidence, and confidence follows evidence.
Design is how that evidence is built. It’s how ideas become validated, regulated, and trusted
- by investors, clinicians, and patients alike.
For MedTech companies navigating post-pandemic consolidation, trade disruption, and digital transformation, the opportunity lies in viewing design not as an aesthetic or compliance function, but as a strategic multiplier — one that directly enhances return on R&D and accelerates the path from concept to care.
At Maddison, we believe every design decision should strengthen clinical outcomes, regulatory confidence, and commercial performance. That’s how we help MedTech clients earn their right to grow - by designing it in from day one