Medical Equipment Industry

Medical Equipment Industry

Industry Defined:

Medical equipment (also known as armamentarium) is designed to aid in the diagnosis, monitoring or treatment of medical conditions (Wikipidia).

There are several basic types for Medical equipment, 

• Diagnostic equipment includes medical imaging machines, used to aid in diagnosis. Examples are ultrasound and MRI machines, PET and CT scanners, and x-ray machines.
• Treatment equipment includes infusion pumps, medical lasers and LASIK surgical machines.
• Life support equipment is used to maintain a patient's bodily function. This includes medical ventilators, anesthetic machines, heart-lung machines, ECMO, and dialysis machines.
• Medical monitors allow medical staff to measure a patient's medical state. Monitors may measure patient vital signs and other parameters including ECG, EEG, and blood pressure.
• Medical laboratory equipment automates or helps analyze blood, urine, genes, and dissolved gases in the blood.
• Diagnostic Medical Equipment may also be used in the home for certain purposes, e.g. for the control of diabetes mellitus
• Therapeutic: physical therapy machines like continuous passive range of motion (CPM) machines

The impact of globalization

The Globalization gives a great impact on the medical equipment industry. Globalization has greatly increased the demand for medical technology. The globalization of design, sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, and sales of medical technology has accelerated the transformation of the Med-Tech industry; the emergence of new economies as key marketplaces for the sale of medical devices has given executives pause as they consider how to serve these markets as well as the developed economies that have long been the principal revenue drivers for their companies. Moreover, these concerns are emerging just as the industry’s business model shifts from “selling products” to “providing integrated solutions” that improve care and enhance health across populations.

Industry Profile:

A need for change:

Increasing design re-use and partner collaboration
Integrated access, analysis, mgmt & reporting of trials data
Standardized, electronically managed policies & procedures
Targeted, coordinated mktg to consumers & physicians

Lean initiatives to reduce cycle time and waste

Tsing hua tian di is a medical equipment company in China, and the company is producing DR and some other medical equipment， the company decided to change its strategy to focus on not only its product but also the customer service and international business since the opportunities and impact of globalization. 

Business model 

source: Source: SYK 10K & Investor Presentation  Williams Balsamo February, 18, 2015

Reference:

Medical Technology Industry Faces a Balancing Act in Globalization, By Manufacturing Geek on November 29, 2012

http://manufacturing-geek.com/medical-devices/2012/11/medical-technology-industry-faces-balancing-act-globalization/

Industry Analysis for Mobile Health

The Mobile health has a lot of opportunities now and will increase more in the future. According to the PwC and GSMA report, Touching lives through mobile health: Assessment of the global market opportunity, global mHealth revenues will increase nearly six-fold by 2017, with monitoring services and applications representing 65% of the market. Based on this finding, mHealth has the potential to make a great impact on the healthcare industry, yet organisations are still uncertain on how to capitalist on the technology. (PwC's Official Website) 

The situation now is that the regions and market segments mHealth will have the most impact, different market segments will gave great impact for this industry and will also change companies' strategy to fit in different market. 

     Source: Ralf-Gordon Jahns, 10 November 2010, "500m People will be using health care mobile applications in 2015"

Three Trends that already in society

Ageing population

Ageing populations and chronic illness are driving regulatory reform. Public sector healthcare is seeking better access and quality, and it's looking to the private sector for innovation and efficiency. mHealth improves access and quality, and offers dramatic innovation and cost reduction.

Foundations already in place

The foundations of industrialization of healthcare are already in place — electronic medical records, remote monitoring and communications. ‘Care anywhere’ is already emerging. The platform for mHealth is set.

Personalisation

Healthcare, like other industries, is getting personal. mHealth can offer personal toolkits for predictive, participatory and preventative care.

The emerging economics developing very fast these years, and it will be a great market for mHealth industry. In the emerging markets surveyed, patient awareness and expectations

of mHealth are, on average, far higher than in developed countries (see the following two charts) More important, far more patients are already using mHealth:59% of emerging-market patients use at least one mHealth application or service, compared with 35% in the developed world, and among those who do not, emerging-market residents are more interested in starting. 

New approaches to the delivery of care abound. In Mexico, for example, a telephone-based health care advice and triage service is available to more than one million subscribers and their families for $5 a month, paid through phone bills. In India, an entrepreneur has proved that high-quality, no-frills maternity care can be provided for one-fifth of the price charged by the country’s other private providers. In New York City, the remote monitoring of chronically ill elderly patients has reduced their rate of hospital admissions by about 40 percent. (McKinsey's Official Website)

As a emerging economic country, China will be a large market  for mHealth industry. After I graduated from my college in US, I went back to China in 2012, and I can feel the developing other than economics. People started to care about their health more than before and also for their next generation. From organic food to mobile health equipment, people increased their awareness for all the things good for health. 

However, other than the great opportunities, this industry also have some threats. The most important one is the products, and products need innovation.  Unfortunately, health care can be an isolated and local activity: innovations are not widely known across different systems or beyond sector boundaries. Merely identifying and promoting innovations isn’t enough, however—leaders need to understand whether, and how, the lessons of innovators can be replicated elsewhere.    

Source: Emerging mHealth: Paths for growth. www.pwc.com/mhealth. Economist Intelligence Unite,2012

 

Source: Emerging mHealth: Paths for growth. www.pwc.con/mhealth. Economist Intelligence Unit, 2012

• Barbara, Ciamataro and others. (2012) Mobile Technology Consumption, Opportunities and Challenges. Ferris State University, USA.
• In collaboration with tmngglobal and csmg, March, 2010. Mobile Technology’s Promise for Healthcare 
• www.pwc.com
• www.mckinsey.com
• Emerging mHealth: Paths for growth. www.pwc.com/mhealth. Economist Intelligence Unite,2012