We attend The MedTech Conference (hosted by AdvaMed) every fall to network with medtech industry executives, from startup CEOs to top managers of MPO’s Top 30 companies. It’s a great place to gain a real pulse of the industry from various perspectives.

This year’s gathering in San Diego (Oct. 5–8) felt like an important inflection point: The sector’s biggest names attended with sharpened strategies on artificial intelligence (AI), regulatory issues, supply chains, reshoring, M&A, and capital allocation. And interestingly enough—though it was less than six months from Liberation Day—tariffs were deemed as more of a nuisance than a significant threat.

The MedTech Conference offered a live look at Top 30 companies’ priorities. From Stryker Corp., Medtronic, and Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc. to Abbott Laboratories, Boston Scientific Corp., GE HealthCare, and J&J MedTech, the largest OEMs actively participated as they collectively calibrated the medical device industry’s narrative on the issues that will matter moving forward. Several important themes emerged during the event, none of which are surprising given the challenges currently facing the industry. Detailed analyses of these themes follows.

Patients Matter: Highlighted by Zimmer Biomet’s keynote session with actor/businessman/former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (recipient of multiple medical devices), many OEMs invited real patients to share their stories and explain how the medtech industry made a difference in their lives. These stories were a pertinent reminder of the benefits medical technologies provide to patients every day. 

Digital Health: The MedTech Conference taught its attendees that “Digital health is consumer health.” It’s no secret that patients are consumers in the healthcare field, and patient decision-making (as well as compliance) is critical to patient outcomes. What can be more important to drive appropriate patient decision making than information? Data from digital health solutions can provide the information that will drive better patient decisions and better results, particularly as artificial intelligence (AI) and other advanced algorithms continue to improve device performance. In some cases, a product’s software solution (AI or otherwise) is the actual “therapeutic” itself. While digital therapeutics got off to a rocky start (remember Pear Therapeutics?), digital health increasingly is acting as both a support system for a medical device and the actual solution itself. AI no longer sits in the pilot lane. Multiple Top 30 companies have walked through concrete deployments—i.e., clinical decision support, algorithm-enhanced diagnostics, device connectivity layers, and post-market analytics pipelines. The storyline has shifted from collecting data to connecting and actioning data across the care continuum. 

The practical implication for mid-market suppliers and contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) is stark—digital fluency is now the “price of admission.” OEM partners expect traceability, interoperable data, and the ability to plug into cloud-first workflows—whether for manufacturing analytics, complaint trending, or value-based evidence generation. Companies that cannot “speak” data risk being relegated to commodity status. 

At the same time, leading OEMs acknowledged some of the implementation challenges: validation rigor, data privacy, and bias mitigation. Responsible AI is moving from compliance checkbox to commercial differentiator particularly as hospital customers ask for explainability and interoperability, and regulators formalize expectations. The key here is for regulators to keep up and balance risk with clinical needs for the patients’ benefit. While protection is essential, the industry must provide patient consumers with data that improve their treatment outcomes and enhances their daily lives.

Supply Chain and Reshoring: The last three years of rolling shocks and unexpected curve balls have turned supply chain management into a CEO agenda item. In San Diego, leading companies described the ways in which they’ve regionalized (reshoring or otherwise), dual-sourced, and digitized operations—often with CDMOs as embedded partners rather than arms-length vendors. Session discussions on manufacturing resilience were clear: Factory maps/footprints are now part of company branding. 

M&A Momentum: The “outside the conference room” chatter in San Diego was unmistakable: deal appetite is dynamic and evolving, and the focus is accentuating on strategic fit. Higher borrowing costs and Monday morning Wall Street quarterbacks (Masimo Founder Joe Kiani is well-versed in this area) have nudged strategics toward capability/fit acquisitions—analytics platforms, surgical robotics modules, digital diagnostics, strategic fits in adjacent spaces (bringing new market opportunity), and connectivity layers—over generic revenue add-ons. For the Top 30 players, expect more targeted, adjacency-tight transactions and continued non-core asset pruning.

From an advisory perspective, we’ve noticed that strategic buyers are not just buying capacity but rewarding capability in three areas:

1. Relevance: Clear fit with clinical workflows and/or platform roadmaps.
2. Readiness: Quality systems, cybersecurity posture, and scalable operations already in place.
3. Evidence: Measurable impact on outcomes or efficiency, not just “nice to have” features.

Consequently, private equity (PE) remains pivotal, particularly in CDMO platforms, data-enabled software services, and medical devices. The key formula for sellability to PE is scability, regardless of whether the seller is a CDMO, SaaS or medical device company.

As the Regulatory World Turns: Even though they were not being paid at the time (courtesy of a government shutdown), a handful of principal U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) members participated in the event. Key themes included:

• U.S. FDA: Pushing through the “DOGE” turmoil to work with AdvaMed, MDMA, and Top 30 players to more efficiently move the industry forward. Efforts must be made to ensure AI is helpful and not so restrictive as to slow down patient benefits.
• European Union MDR: It’s as ugly as ever. Even with the implementation delays, many companies are simply choosing to postpone EU market entry as the FDA is surprisingly easier to work with. Who would have ever thought that a decade ago?
• Rest of World: While harmonization is a key theme, regional players still seem tempted to find ways to either monetize or collect proprietary information (or both) through their respective regulatory bodies.

There’s a saying at MedWorld Advisors that what happens in the Top 30 boardrooms doesn’t stay there—it cascades across the value chain, impacting OEMs, CDMOs, design houses, materials leaders, and digital innovators. Thus, there are various ways in which the lessons learned at The MedTech Conference can translate into actionable thoughts:

• Digital competency is mandatory. Whether for validation, manufacturing analytics, or post-market surveillance, data literacy is now a prerequisite to strategic partnerships.
• Partnerships are deeper—and narrower. OEMs are consolidating supplier rosters while inviting top partners into co-development and risk-sharing models. Be indispensable, not interchangeable.
• Leadership transitions create white-space. With some CEO turnover within the Top 30, new chief executives and refreshed boards create reset priority lists. That’s opportunity—for partnerships, carve-outs, and targeted acquisitions—if the story aligns with the go-forward playbook.
• Regionalization beats globalization (for now). Dual-shore and near-shore strategies will win contracts as logistics volatility persists and sustainability reporting tightens.
• Evidence > anecdotes. Whether selling a product or a company, bring proof of impact (outcomes, throughput, cost-to-serve). It’s the currency of 2026 sellability/scalability/deal making.

Events like The MedTech Conference, MPO Summit, MDM West, etc., are essential for medtech executives and stakeholders to remain informed about the key issues affecting the industry. Of all the insights we’ve shared about The MedTech Conference, there is one that stands out. And that is relationships still matter. Trust—in the individual, the team, or the company—can be the deciding factor in landing a strategic deal, whether it’s in supply chain, commercial growth, or M&A.

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Florence Joffroy-Black, CM&AA, and Dave Sheppard, CM&AA, are managing partners at MedWorld Advisors (www.medworldadvisors.com), a global M&A advisory firm serving the medical technology and life-science industries. Florence can be reached at florencejblack@medworldadvisors.com. Dave can be reached at davesheppard@medworldadvisors.com.