Digital Health Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing nearly doubled in three years. 2021 to 2024 filings rose from 159 to 285, a documented +79% over that span, with 2025 the peak year so far at 500 (still an undercount given publication lag).
- No single filer controls the field. The leader holds 147 records, but the ranked top 5 combined account for just 15.1% of all 2,486 records in scope — concentration is modest and a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants makes up the rest.
- Healthcare informatics dominates the claim map. G16H covers 69.0% of records, more than double the next class (A61B diagnosis & surgery at 30.0%), meaning most contested claim space sits in workflow and data-processing language rather than device hardware.
Filing growth compares 2021 (159 records) with 2024 (285) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 2,486 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this dataset covers
This landscape tracks 2,486 published patent records filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine digital health or health informatics terminology with a named clinical function — electronic health records, clinical decision support, digital therapeutics, remote patient monitoring, interoperability, medical AI, consumer health or health privacy. The scope is deliberately narrow: it excludes generic medical device filings that do not touch data, software or information architecture. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent one to two years in any trend understate actual filing activity.
Filings run through the United States, India, the WIPO PCT route, Europe, Canada and Australia, with the United States and India together accounting for the largest share of receiving-office activity. The assignee base is broad: pharmaceutical and device incumbents, health IT and computing majors, and a long tail of universities, hospital systems and single-product startups all appear in the ranking.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 2,486-record corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Annual filings climbed from 67 in 2017 to a documented 280 in 2026 (a partial year). The 2021→2024 span shows the clearest complete-year growth: 159 to 285 records, +79%. 2025 shows 500 records, the highest of the series so far, but because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months this and the 2026 figure will keep revising upward rather than signalling a plateau.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
G16H (healthcare informatics) appears on 69.0% of all 2,486 records, far ahead of A61B (diagnosis & surgery, 30.0%) and G06F (electric digital data processing, 28.5%). G06N (AI-based computing, 17.4%) and G06Q (business/admin data processing, 13.8%) trail but are growing claim categories. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares sum to well over 100% and should be read as overlap, not as a partition of the field.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,486 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Digital Health & Health Informatics Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about digital health & health informatics patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA recent filing that shows where claims are heading
Systems and methods for healthcare configured artificial intelligence platforms
A device may include a plurality of sensors configured to collect operational data from a healthcare environment, the operational data comprising at least two of patient data, equipment status data, staff location data, environmental condition data, and workflow data. A device may include a context analysis module configured to determine a current operational context. A device may include a sensor fusion engine configured to: receive the operational data from the plurality of sensors, apply context-specific weighting to the operational data based on the current operational context determined by the context analysis module; and generate fused operational information by integrating the weighted data.Abstract text as published; filing details are rendered alongside this entry.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20020010679A1 | Information record infrastructure, system and method | 1,634 |
| 2 | US8316237B1 | System and method for secure three-party communications | 1,622 |
| 3 | US7181017B1 | System and method for secure three-party communications | 1,316 |
| 4 | US20130159021A1 | Information record infrastructure, system and method | 526 |
| 5 | US20090287837A1 | Information record infrastructure, system and method | 506 |
| 6 | US20190247050A1 | Integrated system for the infixion and retrieval of implants | 451 |
| 7 | US7587368B2 | Information record infrastructure, system and method | 443 |
| 8 | US20100241595A1 | Information record infrastructure, system and method | 303 |
| 9 | US20180158552A1 | Interpretable deep learning framework for mining and predictive modeling of health care data | 251 |
| 10 | US20100131482A1 | Adaptive user interface systems and methods for healthcare applications | 250 |
Citation counts favour older, widely-searched filings and should be read as a signal of influence within this corpus, not as a measure of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Read together, volume, concentration and class overlap point to a field where the claim map is broad but not yet locked down by any one player.
Growth is real but not yet cooling
Filings rose from 159 in 2021 to 285 in 2024, a documented +79% across that complete-year span. 2025's 500 records look like a further jump, but publication lag means the true 2025 and 2026 totals are still being filled in — treat the recent uptick as a floor, not a ceiling.
Modest concentration at the top
The leading assignee holds 147 records and the top 5 combined reach 15.1% of all 2,486 records in scope; by tenth place that share grows to 20.5%. That leaves roughly four-fifths of the corpus spread across a long tail of universities, hospital systems and smaller filers.
Informatics claims dominate, hardware trails
G16H healthcare informatics touches 69.0% of records, well ahead of A61B diagnosis & surgery (30.0%) and G06F data processing (28.5%). AI-specific claims under G06N sit at 17.4%, still a minority share but the fastest-growing category to watch for future crowding.
Momentum is shifting toward newer filers
Several early-decade filers show zero output and -100% year-on-year change in the latest year, while academic filers such as SR University post +50% YoY growth off a smaller base. Momentum in this field is not concentrated among the historical leaders.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to digital health & health informatics patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gate sits
The ranking behind this page covers 100 companies counted by records, not a curated top-50 or top-100 — read it as the full field of ranked assignees this dataset returns.
A single leader without a runaway lead
The top-ranked assignee holds 147 records, well ahead of fifth place at 38 and tenth place at 21. The gap between first and fifth is real, but the top 5 still only account for 15.1% of the full 2,486-record corpus.
Diagnostic and health-IT incumbents anchor the mid-table
Established diagnostic imaging, medical device and enterprise computing filers appear through the ranked assignee list, giving the field an incumbent base even as newer, smaller filers drive recent volume growth.
A long tail of universities and startups
With the top 10 combined at only 20.5% of all 2,486 records, the remaining share is spread across universities, hospital-affiliated research units, government labs and single-product startups — several of which show sharp momentum swings year to year.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| SR UNIVERSITY | 15 | +50% |
| SAVEETHA INST OF MEDICAL & TECH SCI | 9 | +13% |
| ADVANCED NEUROMODULATION SYSTEMS INC | 0 | -100% |
| CALMWAVE INC | 0 | -100% |
| VIGNET INC | 0 | -100% |
| General Electric Co | 0 | — |
| Koninklijke Philips N.V. | 0 | — |
| Becton Dickinson & Co | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to a field still being shaped by newer entrants rather than settled by incumbents. The next steps depend on whether the goal is defensive clearance or offensive filing.
Check freedom-to-operate against the informatics core
With G16H touching 69.0% of records, any new filing that combines clinical workflow data with software logic needs a targeted search against that subclass before drafting claims.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaTrack momentum, not just historical leaders
Several of the largest historical filers show 0 output and -100% YoY in the latest year, while smaller academic and startup filers are growing. Monitoring who is moving now matters more than who filed most historically.
Set up assignee momentum tracking in EurekaMap the white space before filing
Sub-areas like sensor-fusion context weighting and consent architecture show lower claim density relative to their clinical breadth. A first claim there faces less crowded prior art than a general EHR or CDS filing.
Explore white space mapping in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
The ranked assignee list behind this landscape covers 100 companies by record count, led by a single assignee with 147 records, ahead of fifth place at 38 and tenth place at 21. Even so, concentration is modest: the top 5 combined account for only 15.1% of the 2,486 records in scope, and the top 10 combined reach 20.5%. That means most of the field sits with a long tail of universities, hospital systems and smaller filers rather than a handful of dominant players, so competitive monitoring needs to look well past the first five names.
Filing activity has grown substantially: complete-year figures show 159 records in 2021 rising to 285 in 2024, a documented +79% increase. 2025 shows 500 records, the highest year in the series so far. Because publication typically lags actual filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete and will likely revise upward, so there is no evidence in this dataset of the field cooling.
Healthcare informatics, classified under IPC subclass G16H, appears on 69.0% of all 2,486 records in this landscape, making it by far the most heavily claimed category. Diagnosis and surgery (A61B, 30.0%) and electric digital data processing (G06F, 28.5%) follow well behind. AI-based computing (G06N) sits at 17.4%, a smaller but notable share given how recent much of that claim activity is. Because records often carry multiple IPC codes, these figures overlap rather than sum to a whole field.
Based on the technology composition, the busiest claim territory sits in general healthcare informatics and data processing, while more specific functional branches such as sensor-fusion context weighting for remote monitoring, interoperability standards mapping, and cross-jurisdiction health privacy compliance automation show comparatively lower filing density relative to how broad their underlying clinical use case is. These are reasonable areas to search closely before assuming prior art is thin, but they are where a well-drafted first claim faces less crowding than a generic EHR or clinical-decision-support filing.
WO2026112646A1, filed by Strong Force Health Portfolio 2024 LLC and published in 2026, claims a sensor-fusion architecture that ingests multiple streams of healthcare operational data (patient, equipment, staff, environmental, workflow) and applies context-specific weighting before fusing it into operational information. That claim structure sits squarely inside the G16H and G06N overlap this landscape shows is growing, and signals that newer filings are moving from single-data-stream monitoring toward multi-source, context-aware fusion systems as the next layer of claim activity.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.