Remote medical equipment maintenance: How it works

KPMG projects global medical device sales to grow by over 5% per year and reach nearly USD 800 billion by 2030.

No surprise there. We know that healthcare providers rely more than ever on technical equipment. That includes everything from ultrasound and X-ray machines to CT scanners and surgical robots.

But as the dependence on medical equipment grows, so does the need for fast, effective maintenance and support. After all, an unexpected malfunction of a critical device can have fatal consequences.

Remote troubleshooting solutions, such as TeamViewer’s Smart Service, help to meet this demand. They allow technicians to perform maintenance from anywhere without compromising medical device security.

In this article, we’ll look at the different elements of medical equipment maintenance. We’ll also discuss its related challenges and how remote solutions can help overcome them.

In this article:

• What is medical equipment maintenance?
• The importance of maintaining medical devices
• Challenges of medical equipment maintenance and repair
• TeamViewer’s role in servicing medical equipment
• Case study: Regensight
• Summary

What is medical equipment maintenance?

Medical equipment maintenance is the process of ensuring medical devices are working properly.

Medical devices come in many shapes and sizes—from X-ray machines to surgical robots. But they all have one thing in common: their critical role in delivering patient care. Through regular maintenance, manufacturers and healthcare facilities ensure they can fulfill this role.

A strong maintenance strategy includes three key elements:

• Preventative maintenance. Routine measures like software updates, inspections, and part replacements to reduce the risk of unexpected failures.
• Predictive maintenance. Real-time monitoring and data analysis to detect potential issues early and address them before they cause equipment failure.
• Corrective maintenance. Troubleshooting and repairing equipment after a failure or malfunction to restore functionality with minimal disruption to patient care.

Combining these approaches helps healthcare facilities extend the lifespan of healthcare equipment, prevent disruptions, and ensure reliable patient care.

The importance of maintaining medical devices

Malfunctioning medical equipment can severely impact patients, healthcare providers, and equipment manufacturers alike.

Just imagine a critical monitoring device, diagnostic equipment, or life-support machine failing. A lack of proper maintenance and support leads to diagnostic errors, poor treatment, and—in the worst case—loss of life.

Obviously, financial consequences don’t compare to human ones. Nevertheless, for healthcare facilities and manufacturers, equipment malfunctions often mean regulatory violations. These can lead to fines, legal actions, and reputational damage.

Challenges of medical equipment maintenance and repair

Since medical devices are often of vital importance, keeping them maintained isn’t always easy. Here are some of the biggest obstacles that maintenance providers face.

Maintaining security and compliance

Healthcare organizations must follow regulations like HIPAA and GDPR to secure patient data. This means technicians need to meet special data protection requirements when performing maintenance and repairs.

At the same time, businesses in the health sector have to be particularly diligent about preventing data breaches. That means medical device security needs to be a priority.

Avoiding inefficiencies

When done poorly, both scheduled maintenance and on-demand repairs can disrupt clinical staff’s work and impact patient outcomes. For critical medical equipment, lengthy downtime just isn’t an option.

That’s why medical equipment servicing must be fast and reliable. Technicians need to be able to access information and take necessary actions without hindering patient care.

Controlling costs

Frequent maintenance, repairs, and replacements can be expensive for healthcare organizations. But skimping on maintenance can lead to unexpected breakdowns and expensive emergency repairs.

The challenge is to find cost-effective ways to catch and resolve issues quickly. Remote technology can play an important role in that.

TeamViewer’s role in servicing medical equipment

Picture being able to quickly diagnose and fix technical issues on critical equipment. And all without walking to a different part of the building, let alone traveling to a customer site.

That’s what you get with TeamViewer Smart Service.

Our remote troubleshooting solution lets you access any medical device, making maintenance and repairs fast and effective. Connect to a device’s system or guide clinical staff on site via augmented reality (AR) remote assistance, all within the same application. Smart Service also integrates seamlessly with your existing infrastructure, ensuring a smooth digital experience.

TeamViewer’s technology is fully compliant with security frameworks like GDPR, HIPAA, and HITECH. Dedicated security features such as Conditional Access allow you to control who can access critical devices and sensitive data. Automated event logs and session summaries help with transparency and quality assurance.

With Smart Service, you can avoid travel and fix critical medical equipment immediately. And that’s not all—let’s look at some more benefits of doing medical equipment maintenance remotely.

• Higher service quality. Improve your mean time to resolution (MTTR) and first-time fix rate (FTFR) by solving issues without needing to travel.
• Efficient healthcare operations. Minimize equipment downtime and ensure clinical staff can focus on what’s important: helping patients.
• Reliable care. Fewer and faster-resolved technical issues improve clinical care, patient trust, and satisfaction.  
• Secure and compliant devices. Close security gaps through regular maintenance and stay compliant by using a certified remote solution.
• Lower costs. With less travel, shorter downtimes, and less emergency troubleshooting, you and your customers are more cost-efficient.
• Improved sustainability. Avoid emissions from travel and extend equipment lifespans through remote maintenance and support.

Case study: Regensight

Regensight specializes in eye care devices that combine therapy with imaging diagnostics, also known as theranostic devices. The company needed a fast and secure way to support and maintain customer devices.

With TeamViewer, Regensight’s technicians can remotely perform maintenance, updates, and troubleshooting—all while securing sensitive patient data. This allows them to provide fast and reliable customer service. Which, in turn, helps eye surgeons worldwide perform successful operations.

Watch the video to get the full story.