The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent heightened monitoring of contagious disease outbreaks in recent years have affected the entire world on an unprecedented scale. They serve as a reminder that health remains, and will always remain, humanity’s most precious asset. Here is an overview of this sector to help better understand its activities and the differences between Biotech, MedTech, and eHealth.
HealthTech companies, along with international institutions such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), are tasked with saving, prolonging, or improving lives by alleviating the scourge of disease and inventing tomorrow’s medicines.
Understanding the differences among Biotech, MedTech, and eHealth
MedTech & Health, an available specialisation in ESILV’s Master’s Degree in Engineering, offers a comprehensive approach to health technologies positioned at the intersection of people, technology, and medical professionals. Thus, the programme is at the heart of the digital transformation of the medical sector and biotechnologies.
According to France Biotech, the sector’s growth translates to an increasing demand for specialised professionals: by 2025, the HealthTech sector reported 80,000 jobs, with 78% of companies planning to grow their staff in 2026.
Understanding the differences among Biotech, MedTech, and eHealth can give students clarity about the path they need to take before graduating and help ensure a fulfilling professional choice.
Biotechnologists for the future of Medicine
Short for Biotechnology, Biotech is a field that encompasses technologies and applications involving the use or modification of living materials for scientific research to advance human knowledge or for commercial purposes to create products or services.
Biotechnology combines the life sciences (biology) with new technologies such as computer science, physics, and chemistry. Currently booming, the sector could generate revenue of 40 billion euros.
In the healthcare sector, biotech companies are used to develop drugs and new therapies for diseases previously considered incurable.
Oncology (the study of cancerous tumors) remains a primary therapeutic area being explored by biotechnology companies, followed by infectious diseases and the central nervous system.
Biotechnology engineers use microorganisms on an industrial scale to create new materials, energy sources, or new bacteria for use in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and food industries.
Technical innovation in MedTech
MedTech refers to all technologies used to treat, save, or improve the lives of patients with a wide range of conditions. There are over 500,000 medical technologies on record.
MedTech encompasses everything from very simple tools such as syringes, plasters, wheelchairs, pregnancy tests, hearing aids and orthopaedic prostheses, etc., to far more sophisticated devices such as MRI scanners, ventilators, in vitro diagnostics, artificial organs and surgical robots, etc.
The technologies developed by MedTech companies combine diverse skills and expertise (engineering, robotics, IT, biology) across equally diverse therapeutic fields.
Today, more than 500,000 medical technology products are available in hospitals, healthcare facilities and in people’s homes around the world.
Biomedical engineers now play a key role in hospitals. Working alongside a team of technicians, they design equipment, ensure it operates correctly and is properly maintained, plan future equipment purchases, and assist hospital management in making technological decisions.
They also organise training sessions to ensure that medical and nursing staff use the equipment correctly. They may also work in industry, in a company specialising in the research and development of healthcare equipment.
eHealth is booming thanks to big data and AI
Digital health, or eHealth, as defined by the European Commission, is “a set of tools and services that use information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support and improve all stages of healthcare, from prevention and diagnosis to treatment, monitoring, and management of health conditions.”.
This field thus encompasses a wide variety of applications: connected medical devices, telemedicine solutions, health data analysis… It involves a multitude of stakeholders: healthcare professionals, patients, insurers, healthcare providers, manufacturers…
The use, exploitation and protection of health data, by manufacturers and tech companies as well as public sector bodies, are among the key challenges of the coming decade.
In this sector, all digital roles are relevant, from mobile app developers to Chief Digital Officers (CDOs), as well as cybersecurity experts and healthcare data scientists.
Technological innovation is transforming the entire healthcare sector
Today, big data, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, machine learning, 3D printing and robotics are revolutionising the way medicine is practised, diseases are treated, diagnoses are made, and treatments are prescribed and monitored.
AI technologies, with their wide-ranging applications, are attracting growing interest from Healthtech companies. Around 44% of them in France report using or having used AI and big data technologies in their operations.
Joining the healthtech sector means immersing yourself in fascinating topics, giving your work meaning, and making a valuable contribution to the revolution in better living and better ageing taking shape today.
MedTech and Health: A Pathway to Careers in Healthcare, Technology, and Life Sciences
The MedTech & Health major prepares engineering students to work at the interface of healthcare, technology and life sciences. Delivered on the Paris campus, this CTI-accredited engineering programme combines biomedical sciences, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, medical regulations and digital technologies to address the evolving needs of the health sector.
Recognised by the Medicen Paris Region competitiveness cluster, the major has received the Medicen label, a distinction awarded to programmes aligned with the skills requirements of the HealthTech ecosystem, including start-ups, industrial companies and research organisations.
Project-based learning is a central component of the curriculum. Students develop solutions with direct applications in healthcare, supported by facilities such as the Fab Lab, IoT laboratory and deep learning computing infrastructure. Recent projects have focused on areas including custom orthopaedic devices, connected health technologies, assistive systems powered by artificial intelligence, physiotherapy tools and brain-computer interfaces.
By combining engineering expertise with an understanding of medical environments and patient needs, the MedTech & Health major equips future engineers to contribute to the digital transformation of healthcare and the development of new biomedical technologies.
ESILV’s MedTech & Health programme, an available specialisation within the Master’s Degree in Engineering.
