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Point of Care Testing to
Power Growth
Increasing Competition Highlights Need for Enhanced Customer Service
The laboratory-based segment
currently dominates the European acute cardiac diagnostics market. However,
market development over the next few years will be driven primarily by the point
of care testing (POCT) segment. As troponin testing becomes mainstream and
demand for decentralised testing rises, contributions from the POCT segment are
set to increase.
At present, POCT comprises less
than 15 per cent of the cardiac markers market and continues to grapple with
long-standing issues such as high costs, precision and quality control. While
technological advances will promote the growing reliability of point of care (POC)
devices and support their effective use within cardiac care, costs too are
expected to fall to levels where the benefits begin to outweigh the costs.
"There has been limited
qualitative assessment of cardiac parameters over the past two years and the
total market for acute cardiac diagnostics has been predominantly driven by
laboratory-based tests," notes Frost & Sullivan Healthcare Analyst Dr. Fiona
Rahman. "POCT provides a panel of cardiac tests which has been received
successfully by end users indicating that promising growth for this segment and,
by extension, the overall market."
As the deployment of POCT in
the cardiac marker testing market expands, larger companies will start
developing compact bench top devices. At the same time, the presence of
technologies capable of linking satellite hospital equipment, such as POC
diagnostic devices to central laboratory information management systems, will
add further momentum to the uptake of POCT in acute care diagnostics.
"The integration of POCT
systems into a hospital department will encourage the ease of data management,
says Dr. Rahman. "A machine that will not just run cardiac markers efficiently,
but also incorporate bar codes for patient identification and links for
management for patient information are required. Connectivity is essential for
POCT and is key to its entrance into hospital markers."
From $158.3 million in 2004,
the total European acute cardiac diagnostics market is expected to increase to
$224 million in 2008, at which stage 20 per cent of the revenues will derive
from the POC market segment. In 2011, the total market is projected to amass
$278.7 million with POC testing accounting for 24 per cent of these revenues.
Technological improvements that
are increasing the availability of cardiac marker tests are also propelling
market growth. The analysers available today are faster and easier-to-use than
those from five years ago. Moreover, currently available analysers possess the
capability of integrating patient information and compiling a database based on
patient medical history, test ordering and demographic data.
Such positive trends are being
supported by antibodies used to detect the cardiac proteins that are becoming
progressively more specific and sensitive to cardiac tissue. Automation has
improved the technical performance of the assay and helped reduce the total
assay time as well as the overall costs of reagents. Over the next three years,
these technological improvements will result in enhanced turnaround times,
throughput and ease of which, in turn, will encourage heightened demand for
cardiac markers.
Government backing, actively
promoting the use of new markers, has further strengthened domestic markets (in
Germany, France and the United Kingdom). Sustained government support will
continue to stimulate adoption as guidelines and protocols encouraging the
employment of novel cardiac markers are fine-tuned and implemented to overcome
scepticism from the medical community.
As competition intensifies,
market participants will be compelled to add value to their services.
Manufacturers will need to educate end users about their products by training
the company's sales representatives and field specialists within the clinical
setting or recruiting medical professionals, such as cardiologists and
clinicians. Investing in public relations, conducting conferences or focus
groups that allow interfacing between the clinicians, laboratory technicians,
cardiologists, administrators and product specialists will also encourage
augmented acceptance of cardiac markers.
For more details , contact :
Radhika Menon Theodore, Corporate Communications, at
rmtheodore@frost.com
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