Glasgow City Council’s Digital Economy team has published a new spotlight report examining the strength and composition of the city’s medtech cluster, marking the third instalment in its Why Glasgow? series.

The report explores how the city region’s health infrastructure, research base and innovation assets are supporting the growth of a high-value, research-led medtech ecosystem.

The report defines medtech as a broad and increasingly convergent cluster spanning medical devices, digital health and in vitro diagnostics, all operating within medical device regulation. While each sub-sector addresses different parts of the healthcare system, the boundaries between them are becoming increasingly blurred as the technology underpinning it becomes more ambitious in scope – for example, many medtech products now combine physical devices with digital components, such as wearable sensors linked to apps or AI-enabled diagnostic tools. This convergence is driving innovation across healthcare, enabling more personalised, data-driven and efficient care delivery.

Medical devices remain a core component of the cluster, encompassing physical products used to prevent, diagnose, monitor and treat patients. These range from diagnostic tests and monitoring equipment to imaging systems, surgical instruments and implants.

The report notes that many devices are becoming more advanced through the use of sensors, connectivity and embedded software, while being subject to regulation based on patient risk.

Alongside this, digital health focuses on software, data and connectivity to support healthcare delivery. The report highlights applications including remote patient monitoring, telehealth platforms, mobile health apps, data analytics and artificial intelligence tools that assist with diagnosis, triage and clinical decision-making.

Glasgow’s venture capital-funded medtech startups are reported to have a combined enterprise value of £361m.

Further, employment growth across the cluster has been startling. In 2018, the city’s medtech sector comprised six teams employing between two and 10 people and 42 teams with between 10 and 50 employees. By 2026, this had expanded to 81 teams of two to 10 employees, 335 teams employing between 10 and 50 people, and a further 157 teams with workforces of between 50 and 200 employees.

Reflecting on this growth, Dr Ruth McLaughlin, Programme Director of The Living Laboratory at the University of Glasgow, said: “What we’re seeing happening in Glasgow is an ecosystem that is able to support MedTech at its broadest sense – a really rich support environment.”

Glasgow’s health ecosystem

Central to the report is the role of Glasgow’s health ecosystem in supporting MedTech innovation, validation and adoption.

The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital is identified as one of Europe’s largest acute hospitals and a major differentiator for the city region. Its scale, range of clinical specialisms and large local population enable companies to run trials, gather evidence and undertake real-world validation at pace.

The report highlights a strong culture of collaboration between clinicians and early-stage innovators, with surgeons, consultants and specialist nursing teams contributing to the development of products that are clinically relevant, safe and deployable.

Supporting this is the University of Glasgow’s Living Laboratory, which focuses on translating cutting-edge science and healthcare innovation into real-world clinical settings. The Digital Health Validation Lab, also led by the university, provides infrastructure and expertise to assess digital health technologies, with a focus on ethical and responsible clinical integration.

Kadans Science Partners is also part of this ecosystem, owning key facilities at the West of Scotland Science Park and the new Health Innovation Hub, which are designed to support science and healthcare innovation.

Access to patient populations is described as one of Glasgow’s most valuable assets. Through NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, the region serves a large and diverse urban population, enabling inclusive clinical research and real-world evaluation. Higher patient volumes support recruitment to studies, while diversity in socio-economic background, health conditions and co-morbidities strengthens the relevance of clinical findings.

Professor Jesse Dawson, Director of Research and Innovation at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said: “We have access to all patients groups, all clinical specialities – so there isn’t any health area we couldn’t help test and support developing MedTech solutions.”

The scale of the healthcare system underpins this advantage, with more than 1.3 million outpatient visits and around half a million inpatient visits annually across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Across the wider city region, there are 13.3 million GP contacts each year, covering around 232 GP surgeries.

Innovation pipeline

University spin-outs are presented as a defining feature of Glasgow City Region’s MedTech cluster. While they represent a minority of companies, they account for a significant share of overall enterprise value, underlining their importance as drivers of high-value growth.

The cluster comprises around 47 core MedTech companies, of which 20 are university spin-outs. Nine of these spin-outs are venture capital funded, and together spin-outs account for 66% of the cluster’s enterprise value. In total, nine MedTech spin-outs operating in the region have secured £238m in VC funding.

Dr Rebecca Cleary, CTO and Founder of Nami Surgical, highlighted the strength of the academic research base underpinning this activity, saying: “We are very lucky that between the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde, we have the largest base of ultrasonic research in the world.”

Universities are positioned as anchor institutions within the ecosystem, providing research foundations, talent and infrastructure alongside support for intellectual property, commercialisation and early-stage development. The University of Glasgow is described as a global leader in biomedical engineering, imaging, precision medicine, nanofabrication and diagnostics, with an interdisciplinary research culture that consistently produces MedTech spin-outs.

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The University of Strathclyde complements this through applied engineering, robotics, manufacturing and prototype development, supported by its Strathclyde Institute of Medical Devices and its Centre for Doctoral Training in medical devices.

A range of place-based assets further support the innovation pipeline. The new Health Innovation Hub, located beside the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, adds 65,000 square feet of flexible office and laboratory space designed to support emerging precision medicine companies. National assets such as the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre and the Medical Device Manufacturing Centre provide additional support for testing, adoption, prototyping and scalable manufacturing.

Global market opportunities

The report situates Glasgow’s MedTech cluster within a rapidly expanding global market. The global medical technology market is projected to reach almost $887bn by 2032, while the digital health market is expected to grow to $940bn, reflecting the increasing convergence of devices, software and data-driven healthcare.

Europe accounts for 26.4 per cent of the global medtech market, with a total market value of approximately €170bn. The sector is characterised by a strong SME base, with more than 38,000 medtech companies operating across Europe and 90% employing fewer than 50 people.

In 2024, medical technology was the fourth highest sector for patent applications at the European Patent Office, with more than 15,700 filings.

The report argues that this structure closely mirrors Glasgow City Region’s own MedTech cluster, creating strong export potential. Short product lifecycles and sustained R&D investment favour regions able to support rapid iteration, clinical validation and early evidence generation — areas where Glasgow is positioned as having clear strengths.

While Scotland’s global share of the MedTech and digital health markets remains modest, it is recognised internationally for innovation capability. With £30m of UK Government funding available through the Local Innovation Partnerships Fund, the report is adament that Glasgow City Region has a significant opportunity to scale its medtech ambitions and build globally relevant, export-ready technologies.