6A – Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

The first economic trend I would like to bring into light is climate change, I found this opportunity in an investopedia article for economic trends. The population is expected to increase at a rapid pace and this is going to prove detrimental to our finite resources and exhausting the carbon budget. This will hasten global warming and have devastating economic, social, and political consequences. Everyone is directly related to this issue but perhaps big nuclear plants, engineering firms, or politicians willing to step up can be major customers for this opportunity. This is a difficult opportunity to exploit considering this has been a pressing issue that no one has placed priority on in the past. I saw this opportunity because I have always been an advocate for the protection of our earth, without it we are nothing. This is an opportunity that needs to be developed in order to literally protect our lives.
The second economic trend is the rise of smart devices found on the same site as the previous trend. This is something that has been on a steady rise for the past couple of years, the ability to connect to these devices whether it be to your home, your car, kiosks replacing human workers, etc. The rise is something that can lead to cybercrime as well. This can be an opportunity for computer engineering companies to prevent cyber crimes and companies such as amazon and google to make advanced smart devices. I saw an opportunity here that others may not in the sense that tech savvy criminal can jump onto the smart device trend to commit crimes. Instead of looking at an opportunity to invent smarter innovations, perhaps looking to create better virus walls and protection against these technologies that can easily be hacked.

The first regulatory change was found on a Northeastern University website and it is how regulatory agencies are approving clinical trials. Usually many labs and analysis has to be done through the FDA to approve a new medical drug. Now they are depending more on "PROs": patient reported outcomes. This is an opportunity to create more in depth trials including more patient interaction and feedback. A major customer could be pharmaceutical companies. I found this trend a big opportunity to transform the way clinical trials are preformed.
The second regulatory change was found on the same university site, and it is how the European Union is reviewing how it rewrites its medical device regulations. This can change how manufacturers develop, market, and gain approval of their products. An example is how health practitioners can interact with devices they use such as pacemakers through bluetooth which is also dangerous when it comes to cyber security and hacking. Customers can be medical engineering companies. I saw this trend as an opportunity to develop safe and efficient products that will not be hacked or place an individual in danger.