MHealth

September 6, 2011 — The Editors

The term “mHealth” is one being used to help define a category of medical services and devices and a growing part of the health care industry. It stands most simply for mobile health care, more fully “emerging mobile communications and network technology for healthcare.”

This market encompasses the use of mobile techology in the service of providing health care. It includes all those applications which combine body sensors with mobile or static devices designed to monitor a patient’s vital signs or some specific bodily function. The infrastructure behind these devices is also part of the category. An example of such a device is an electrode patch which may be worn by a patient and automatically send the monitoring center information about the patient while he or she is on-the-go. The information is sent by a tiny radio transmitter build into the epidurmal electronic device.

Today’s market size is the estimated size of the market for mHealth products in 2010 and a forecast for the size in 2014. Please note, however, that this market has yet to be well defined and as a result various research firms have come up with widely disparate projections of its size. The source listed below provides a link to an article explaining this problem more fully, titled “mHealth predictions: $1.9B, $4.4B, $4.6B?” Defining the market is key!

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2010 and a forecast for 2014
Market size: $1.5 and $4.6 Billion respectively
Source: “Market Size Projections for mHealth and Wireless Health”, Wireless Health Strategies, March 19, 2010, available online here.
Original source: CSMG, a division of TMBG Global
Posted on September 06, 2011

Posted in Health Care, Hospital Equipment, Information Technology, Medical Devices, Mobile Devices. No Comments »

Medical Equipment Wholesalers

February 11, 2011 — The Editors

All week we have been looking at wholesale industries that are in decline, either because the products in which they deal are in decline or because of more structural changes in the overall distribution of some products. For a change of pace, today we look at one of the wholesale industries that has been doing extremely well over the last decade, and one not associated with the housing bubble, which temporarily lifted many boats.

The figures below are for the industry defined by the Census Bureau as: “…establishments primarily engaged in the merchant wholesale distribution of professional medical equipment, instruments, and supplies (except ophthalmic equipment and instruments and goods used by ophthalmologists, optometrists, and opticians).” [NAICS 42-3450] As an aside, the wholesalers of ophthalmic equipment have also been doing quite well, as have most U.S. industries involved with the delivery of products and equipment used in the delivery of health care services generally.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 1997 and 2007
Market size: Number of Establishments: 9,782 and 8,478 respectively.
Market size: Sales: $58.79 and $134.59 Billion respectively.
Market size: Employment: 121,572 and 181,685 respectively.
Source: “Sector 42: EC0742I2: Wholesale Trade: Industry Series: Preliminary Comparative Statistics for the United States (2002 NAICS Basis): 2007 and 2002,” 2007 Economic Census, available online here. The data from 1997 are from the 1997 Economic Census, after conversion of the data to a NAICS 2002 basis.
Original Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.

Posted in Medical Devices, Wholesalers. No Comments »

Dialysis Market

January 18, 2011 — The Editors

This market size represents the number of tax dollars spent to care for those on dialysis every year in the United States. In October 1972, Congress made revisions to the Social Security Act so that anyone diagnosed with kidney failure, regardless of age or income, would have comprehensive coverage under Medicare.

Initially, before guaranteed payments from Medicare, hospitals provided most of the care on a nonprofit basis, albeit on a limited basis. In 2010, 80 percent of the clinics offering dialysis were for-profit, with two-thirds of those operated by two chains: DaVita Incorporated (based in Colorado) and Fresenius Medical Care North America (a subsidiary of a German company that makes dialysis machines and supplies). Together these two companies make $2 billion in operating profits per year. More than 100,000 people start dialysis each year in the United States. In 2010, there were nearly 400,000 patients receiving dialysis.
Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2010
Market size: $20 billion
Source: Robin Fields, “God Help You. You’re On Dialysis,” The Atlantic, December 2010, pp. 82-92 and available online here.

Posted in Health Care, Market Size, Medical Devices. 1 Comment »

Diagnostic Imaging Services

November 8, 2010 — The Editors

The increased use of electronic machinery for medical diagnosing has given us greatly increased and more accurate diagnostic tools, tools which can often be used instead of more invasive surgical intervention. Diagnostic imaging centers are at the center of the medical services industry. Revenues earned by diagnostic imaging centers grew by 200% between 1997 and 2007, an annual growth rate of 18.1%. By way of comparison, the inflation rate over this period averaged 2.6% annually.

The activities which fall under the umbrella term “diagnostic imaging” include four major types of scans: 1. Radiological (x-rays); 2. Computer Tomography (CT); 3. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and 4. Ultrasound. Worth noting is the fact that the term also refers to the activities undertaken by physicians, now and throughout history, when they used their tactile sense, feeling an area of the body in order to visualize the condition of internal organs. The services offered at diagnostic imaging centers do not include this most basic form of diagnostic imaging.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 1997 and 2007
Market size: $5.87 Billion and $17.58 Billion in annual receipts respectively
Source: “2007 Economic Census: Sector 62: Health Care and Social Assistance Programs: Preliminary Comparative Statistics for the United States 2007 and 2002″, March 26, 2010, [Online] here. Data for 1997 are from a report by the same title in the “1997 Economic Census” series.
Original Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census

Posted in Health Care, Market Size, Medical Devices. No Comments »

Automatic Patient Lift Equipment Market

June 1, 2010 — The Editors

The United States represents almost half (45.4%) of the world demand for this sort of hospital equipment, followed by the United Kingdom with 18.6%, Germany with 11.3% and France with 6.2%. Companies in the business of producing this equipment, among their offerings, include Arjo/Huntleigh, Joerns, Invacare, Stryker, and HRC.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2009
Market size: $490 Million
Source: Gregory N. Miller, “Jeffries 3rd Annual Healthcare Conference,” June 17, 2009
Original Source: Hill-Rom Services Inc.

Posted in Hospital Equipment, Market Size, Medical Devices. No Comments »

Cardiac Arrhythmia Monitor Market

May 13, 2010 — The Editors

In the IDTF sector (Independent Diagnostic Testing Facilities), CardioNet controlled 25% of the market, LifeWatch 20%, Raytel 9%. Approximately 300 firms composed the remaining 46% of the market.
Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2008
Market size: $2 Billion
Source: Lifewatch: Watching Life Second Quarter 2009, July 29, 2009, p. NA
Original Source: Frost and Sullivan

Posted in Market Size, Medical Devices. 13 Comments »
«
»