The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2025 has once again solidified its position as the global epicenter of innovation, with a strong focus on health tech.
This year’s expo showcased how emerging technologies-ranging from artificial intelligence (AI) to advanced microelectronics-are addressing some of society’s most pressing healthcare challenges.
A notable highlight was the emphasis on chronic disease management using efficient medical devices. The health tech innovations presented at CES 2025 are poised to redefine how healthcare systems approach care delivery in the near future.
CES Health Tech Reduces Pressure on Providers
The digital health sector took center stage at CES 2025, highlighting solutions designed to empower patients and alleviate the burden on overstretched healthcare systems. However, as innovators race to develop cutting-edge tools, the path to commercialization and widespread adoption remains a steep climb for most startups and small companies.
Following CES 2025, we examine the barriers to health tech innovation, explore examples of success, and identify opportunities for strategic collaboration to drive breakthrough discoveries and engineering advancements.
Digital Health Solutions – Addressing a Society in Crisis
The United States is grappling with a healthcare crisis. Chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity are on the rise, placing an unsustainable burden on an already strained system. With too many patients and too few doctors, access to care is dwindling, and costs are skyrocketing.
According to the CDC, 90% of U.S. healthcare spending is attributed to chronic diseases, while 83M of Americans live in areas with a shortage of primary care physicians.
What Are Examples of Health Tech Innovators At CES 2025?
At CES 2025, we have seen a wave of digital health solutions designed to shift care and prevention into the hands of patients. OnMed, Withings and Orange Biomed are small companies with diagnostic and monitoring devices of great potential to enable at-home testing and health management. These solutions aim to seamlessly integrate into users’ lives, reducing the need for hospital visits and empowering families to take control of their health anytime, anywhere.
For example, OnMed’s telehealth kiosks bring healthcare services to underserved communities, while Withings’ smart devices offer continuous health monitoring for conditions like hypertension and sleep apnea. Orange Biomed is pioneering portable diagnostic tools that deliver lab-grade A1C testing accuracy on the go. These CES health tech innovations not only represent a paradigm shift in healthcare delivery, but their success also hinges on overcoming significant barriers to commercialization and adoption.
The High Cost of Innovation Commercialization
One of the most striking observations from CES 2025 is the disparity between established health tech brands and startups. While major players demonstrate consistent innovation momentum year after year, many smaller companies bring groundbreaking discoveries to the table only to disappear by the following year. The high cost of commercializing devices is a key factor behind this trend.
For example, the average cost to bring a 510(k) product from concept to market exceeds $31 million, with regulatory process and clinical validation adding significant cost. The cost of a pre-market approval averages $94 million, with $75 million spent on stages related to the FDA pathway.
What Are the Health Tech Device Commercialization Failure Factors?
Even when endowed with significant funding, why do so many promising devices fail to gain traction? Our analysis shows that commercialization failures usually lie in one or more of three critical areas:
- 1. effectiveness
- 2. usability and
- 3. market inertia
Health tech device companies must delve into these three areas to further understand how to overcome the risks of failure and pave the path toward successful commercialization.
1. Missed Opportunities to Demonstrate Gains in Effectiveness and Efficiency
First, while many devices come close to replicating the accuracy of medical-grade equipment, they often fall short of replacing traditional healthcare solutions entirely. They also fail to make providers’ lives easier or reduce their workload. To succeed, new devices must not only be accurate but also demonstrate measurable efficiency gains for both patients and providers.
2. Solutions That Don’t Seamlessly Fit Into Users’ Lives
Second, successful adoption requires solutions that fit seamlessly into users’ lives. Devices must be reliable, easy to use, and integrate into daily routines without disruption. Costly gadgets that cater to niche markets or require significant training, upkeep, or maintenance are unlikely to gain widespread acceptance.
3. Failure to Accelerate the Typical Adoption Curve
Finally, consumers and healthcare providers are inherently conservative when it comes to adopting new hardware and devices. Solutions that integrate with existing technologies—such as smartphones—have a distinct advantage. The future of digital health lies in solutions that meet users where they are, rather than forcing them to change their behavior.
This is where Orange Biomed’s expertise comes into play. After years of developing user-centric, clinically validated health tech solutions, this South Korean startup is transitioning to commercialization after securing additional funding from global investors. “Taking any health tech innovation to market requires building and leveraging a global multi-player ecosystem,” confirms Orange Biomed’s CEO and Co-Founder Yeaseul Park.
Collaboration – It Takes a Village
The challenges facing digital health cannot be solved in isolation. Collaboration between innovators, investors, and clinicians is essential to drive meaningful progress.
AARP Collective Addresses Needs of the Aging Population
Initiatives like the AARP Collective are a testament to the power of partnerships. This coalition brings together a diverse group of stakeholders, including healthcare providers, technology innovators, policymakers, and senior advocacy organizations. Participants such as Philips, Best Buy Health and startups like CarePredict have joined forces with AARP to develop solutions that enhance the quality of life for older adults.
Strategic Health Tech Partnerships with South Korea, a U.S. Strategic Ally
Another promising avenue for collaboration lies in South Korea’s burgeoning AI complementing its world-class microelectronics sector. Given the strong bilateral partnership between the U.S. and South Korea, with the U.S. having long been a leader in AI and South Korea’s leadership in microchips, the countries are poised to grow a successful alliance with technical innovations in AI, biomedical technology development and application in 2025 and beyond.
It is easy to see at CES 2025 how South Korea has made significant strides in health tech and AI innovation, including advancements in AI-driven memory chips and burgeoning startups in Pangyo Techno Valley (considered the “Silicon Valley of Korea”) in the Gyeonggi Province.
Companies like LG, Samsung, and Neo Nanotech (with KIMM) are at the forefront of this movement, advancing microelectronics and microfluidics technology (for example, wearable devices sensors that can detect signs of sleep apnea and integrate with blood glucose monitors, microLED chiplets used in stretchable displays, and scalable microfluidic chips for mass liposome production). At CES 2025, startups and early stage companies like T&L Healthcare (stretchable Printed Circuit Boards, or PCBs, for wearable healthcare applications) and Orange Biomed (with a portable, lab-accurate A1C meter that is advancing breakthrough microfluidic technology while leveraging cutting-edge microelectronics) demonstrated how they are merging technologies in innovative ways. These combinations are paving the way for new healthcare applications, such as more effective and accessible diabetes testing and management.
For health tech leaders, partnering with South Korean innovators could unlock new opportunities. For instance, DEEPX’s AI-specific chips and Nuvilab’s food recognition technology could synergize to enhance the accuracy and usability of diagnostic devices, while Orange Biomed’s expertise and IP in microfluidic blood diagnostics could help bring new point-of-care and at-home testing devices to market that could transform the future of healthcare and how chronic conditions are measured and treated.
How Can Health Tech Evolve Beyond CES 2025?
CES 2025 has underscored the transformative potential of digital health, but it has also highlighted the challenges of bringing these innovations to market. To succeed in this rapidly evolving landscape, companies must prioritize capital raising, collaboration, user-centric design, and clinical validation.
The path forward lies in forging strategic partnerships with innovators like Orange Biomed and leveraging South Korea’s leadership in AI and microelectronics.
Major industry players can create more opportunities to bring together innovators of advanced technologies and healthcare facilities to shape and validate evidence-based outcomes for new technologies. There is no shortage of chronic diseases that require cost-effective solutions, including diabetes, cancer, obesity, mental health, and so many more.
Such collaborations can accelerate the introduction of solutions that not only address today’s healthcare challenges but also pave the way for a healthier, more sustainable future.
