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Small Hospitals Need Cheaper Devices
With rising healthcare costs, citizens of both emerging and developed economies
are increasingly looking at affordable and accessible medical care. This, in
turn, has led to a surge in demand for costcompetitive medical equipment to make
diagnostic tools affordable for more people. To address both these issues,
Philips Electronics India, a subsidiary of the Dutch conglomerate Royal Philips
Electronics, has set up a plant to manufacture interventional x-ray(IXR) systems
for local and emerging markets. The move follows the parent company’s decision
to position its Indian arm as a centre for these systems.
Bert Van Meurs, senior vicepresidant at the healthcare
division of Royal Philips, said “ the demand for interventional equipment is on
the rise to minimize invasive procedures. The demand for machine is growing with
more surgeons using interventional equipment. Newer treatment is needed as
devices are becoming more intelligent. Imaging devices are now able to enter the
left atrium or go down inside a tumour. So, the big application areas for the
equipment are in cardiac and oncology. The US market, which accounts for 50% of
the global IXR market, has seen a revival this year after a dip in sales last
year. We foresee strong growth in the US market. The market is also growing in
other countries with stateof-the-art procedures. However, in the aftermath of
the global crisis and recession, hospitals in the US increasingly want
high-quality procedures at a low cost.
Top-of-the-line machines required in a referral or tertiary
care hospital in metros are out of reach for many hospitals due to their high
cost. So, the cost of these machines will be 50% lower than those used by
referral hospitals. |
