Medical Device Technologies : Future Scenario

Some of the exciting trends are the use of state-of-the-art manufacturing techniques such as rapid prototyping, computer-aided designs, robotics and the use of risk analysis in the design of devices...

What trends in medical device manufacturing do you find the most interesting?

The use of state-of-the-art manufacturing techniques such as

Rapid Prototyping
Computer-Aided Designs
Robotics
And The Use Of Risk Analysis In The Design of
Devices Are Very Exciting Trends

Where is the medical device manufacturing industry headed?

We are going to see a paradigm shift in the medical device industry due to the current biological revolution. There will be more emphasis in developing combination devices and on tissue engineering/regenerative medicine. There is also a trend in medicine towards developing "less invasive" surgical techniques and for implanting medical devices.

What areas of the medical device industry do you see as having the most growth potential?

Regenerative Medicine And
Tissue Engineering
These are hot areas, as well as
combination medical devices

Analysis of the Global market

Global Disposables Market

The disposable market comprises primarily of gloves, masks, drapes, syringes, needles, catheters and tubes/containers used in clinical laboratory.
Magnitude of the disposable market is evident from the fact that in US 14 of the top 20 products were disposable products.
Unlike the equipment market, this market is more price sensitive, driven by volume business and fast availability. Hence distribution gains paramount importance for this market.

Analysis of the Global market

U.S. is still the largest medical device market and leads the world in advanced medical technologies.
An interesting feature of the US industry is its continuos development and use of new and innovative techniques in areas
like :
molecular diagnostics,
minimal invasive surgery,
biocompatible materials used for cardiovascular, and orthopedic implants.
Dominance of US on the global market is apparent even today.
However, the past few decades have seen decrease of its share from 75% during 1980s to the present level of 43%.

Western Europe is the second largest market and accounts for nearly 25 percent of the global medical device industry.
In Asia, Japanese market has the highest level of advanced medical technologies and economic development.
Countries such as China and India will have greatest growth potential due to their large population and developing healthcare system.
Other countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Korea are expected to show significant growth in medical disposable and equipment market
resulting from improvement in their economies and health care systems.

Continued