China is facing great difficulties and challenges in its quest to transition from the low end to the high end of the medical devices industry. In the burgeoning field of new wearable medical devices, we are encountering many more opportunities to catch up with the leaders in the field, although challenges still exist. The Chinese Academy of Engineering recently organized a major advisory project: the National Health and Medical & Health Industry Development Strategy. Research on the Development Strategies of Medical Devices and New Wearable Medical Devices is one of the eight key subjects in this project. As a result, this paper studies and systematically analyzes the subject of research into medical devices, and the requirements, characteristics, focus, and politics of this field have been assessed. This paper reports on the results of this project regarding research into medical devices and new wearable devices. This paper includes suggestions and proposals to clarify critical issues affecting the development of wearable medical devices.