Patient monitors market in India - survery

\.SPECIAL FEATURE PATIENT MON"ORS

.l1e patient monitoring industry has witnessed important technological advances over thelast decade. Such advancements have culminated in the introduction of a variety of newand innovative patient monitoring solutions. Patient monitors may be pre~configured ormodular--':'-they come as single parameter or multi-parameter units. The selection criteria needsto take into account the distrfuution of beds in terms of criticality to be managed. This woulddetermine the monitoring parameters amongst other things.

~I

Patient monitors constitute a huge market in the country. In the year 2004-05, the organizedmarket for patient monitors in. India is estimated at 9,500 units. In t~rms of revenue, this market isestimated at Rs. 120 crore. The patient monitoring market may be broadly segmented into highacuity, mid acuity, and low acuity monitoring, on the basis of features and applications.

Patients requiring high acuity monitoring aretypically undergoing extensive cardiac sur-gery within large hospitals. These find appli-cations in major operation theaters,post-operative care units, and surgical inten-sive care units. The high acuity monitors arepriced above Rs. 4 lakh, having 6-8 param-eters and are generally modular monitors. Anestimated 650 units of high acuity monitorshave been sold in 2004-05 at an estimated

BUYER. OCTOBER -NOVEMBER 2005.MEDICt\

v'alue of Rs. 30 crore. This segment is largelydominated by Philips. The other players hav-ing significant presence in this segment in-clude GE Healthcare, Datascope, Spacelabs(marketed by Kopran and Empire Instrumen.tation), Drager (marketed by HL Medical),Nihon Kohden (marketed by Trivitron),Mindray (marketed by Instromedix), and L&1

Medical.

Patients requiring medium or low acuity willusually be undergoing surgery that requires sufficient cardiac monitoring but less in term5advanced features. Within the current market, however, this definition is becoming 1~~~ '_~~~r

ent as competitors are forced to provide higher technology products at minimal priCEThe medium acuity monitors that offer 4-5 parameters contributes to around 42 percenttotal market in terms of revenue. Philips, GE Healthcare, and L& T Medical are -1 -

in this segment. The other significant players include Datascope, Drager, Criticare, NinonSpacelabs, Mindray, BPL, and Schiller.Low acuity monitors with 1-3 parameters constitute around 65 percent of the total ~~.1.~

terms of volume sales. An estimated 6,150 low acuity monitors have been sold in themarket in 2004-05. L&T Medical has the major share of the pie, in this segment. Thesignificant players include Philips, GE Healthcare, BPL, Criticare, Mindray, Schiller, and(marketed by Krishna Medi Equipments), among others. A large number of regionalare active in various pockets across the country. These include Maestros Mediline, Claritycal, Emco Meditek, Meditronics, Concept, and Nassan, among others.

Flexibility and mobility have become vital to sustain revenues in the patient monitorii-.~ :~.-I"in the country. In such a scenario, emergence of telemetry solutions, implementation ~

information systems, and development of wireless transport monitors, facilities to upgrade their patient monitors and purchase high-end units. Witl)

patient monitors, a patient has the freedom to move around while still being monitored. Atsame time, just one healthcare worker can monitor several patients remotely, thus rlol"'ro,"

healthcare costs. The market is also rapidly implementing patient monitoring softwa.~tions that allow medical professionals to utilize an unprecedented array of patient data onscreen of a patient monitor. With the advent of central monitoring station various featurespermutation combinations can be applied at the same tilJle-all bed ECG display; ...

eter display of critical bed on same screen or a slave monitor; arrhythmia detectionthe number and types thereof.

;~'In recent years major advances have been made in the complimentary processing andanalysis of biological signals and in particular their application to patient monitoring. Somethe most exciting developments are likely to include and incorporate engineered rnrclaro,

nanotechnologies/nanostructures, molecular manufacturing and other state-of-the-angies, such as Bio MEMS (micro-electrical-mechanical systems) microprocessors andization. The future is predicted to see developments in, and the practical applications ofand molecular nanosensors, displacement and motion sensors, force nanosensorssensing, thermal nanosensors, electrical and magnetic sensing, cellular bioscannlll~macrosensing such as blood pressure/pulse detection and respiratory audition.