17% Growth In Patient Monitoring Systems 2011-12

There’s every reason to be sanguine about advanced patient monitoring systems.   Some healthcare markets see great gains and then decline, or fail to meet expectations.  With advanced patient monitors that can help patients out of the hospital faster, it should not be surprising that revenue growth goes on.  Revenue follows demand.  The predictions for fast growth of 2011 have been proven true in 2012 sales, according to our research.  Growth was 17% globally.  

Patient monitoring systems with advanced features, especially wireless or remote capability, are among the fastest-growing medical devices.  The aging population and the associated increases in diseases such as congestive heart disease and diabetes, is driving sales of these devices.   Use of new patient monitoring technologies can result in a need for fewer personnel, increased coverage by existing personnel, and a reduction in errors. 

Kalorama has released its annual look at the remote and wireless patient monitoring technologies market, Advanced Remote Patient Monitoring Systems.  

This year we tried something different: we segmented the market between two types of information that customers request from us.  We have a segment on hospital patient monitoring, which is still remote (PM between the rooms or floors or even buildings of a hospital.) and telemedicine where the patient monitoring occurs between patient and provider. 

Given that growth it should be no surprise that there is intense competition in the market.   Some of the companies are known: Abbot, St. Jude, Getinge.  And there are some interesting competitors who are on the march – China’s Mindray for instance.  AMD and Second Opinion Healthcare   We cover 43 such companies in our report but there are scores of other competitors.

Patient monitoring will be successful because it HAS to be successful.  Everyone from the Federal government to the major healthcare chains to the insurance companie
It may be asked, Did we discover any surprises in our research?

Many trends are detailed in the report.  But here's something interesting: The Expectation Game is more important than you might think in this market.  Patients expect these systems and are disappointed when a hospital doesn’t offer it.  Certainly we aren’t talking about toys or other products where there’s a ‘Mommy get me this’ factor in marketing, but a more subtle form occurs – as companies and the media play up PM and telemedicine to the public, patients expect it.  


NEW: Advanced Patient Monitoring Systems

This Kalorama Information report, Advanced Remote Patient Monitoring Systems, is a comprehensive study on the patient monitoring industry, including the advanced system with remote and wireless capability to includes patient monitoring equipment and devices which have advanced features. The report specifically focuses on technologically advanced (including wireless and remote) patient monitors; monitors with patient data processing applications; and monitors which are capable of data transfer to an EMR system-including equipment and peripherals which coordinate the flow of data to hospital electronic medical record systems.

http://www.kaloramainformation.com/Advanced-Remote-Patient-7450566/






 

EMR: The Plot Thickens

The announcement of an interoperability alliance, long overdue, included the top companies in the EMR industry.  Under the heading of 'CommonWell' they will work together to make sure there is a universal standard for EMR.   But many of us at Kalorama were scratching our heads wondering.  In a group of top players, where was Epic, which we've included in the top for several editions of our EMR market research report?. Perhaps the firm is insisting on going it alone. The take of the alliance - all are invited, and they went with announcement before getting responses from everyone.

Today comes news that according to Epic, no they weren't invited.  And if they were, they'd rather wait for a national standard from the U.S. government.  

So, the plot thickens.  We'll expect a response from Common Well and for this to go on a bit.  We would suspect there is room enough for such a group and then to still have a few 'outliers' 
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/EMR-Plot-Thickens-2177845

Sequestration: 6 Ways It Hurts Hospitals

From Becker's Hospital Review - "6 Key Observations on Sequestration and Hospitals" notes that hospitals will need to refine purchasing, cost cutting mechanisms.   The main theme: sequestration proves that hospitals need to engage in cost cutting that they probably need to do for strategic reasons anyway.

Most important we think is this note:

"Hospitals and health systems should be aware that healthcare spending cuts are in the government's budget crosshairs."

Indeed.  Need to cut domestic spending?  Go to healthcare.  When cuts are needed at the federal level, legislators find healthcare too large a target not to cut, it seems.   Kalorama's key takeaway would be that hospitals are the largest medical device purchasers, thus anything that affects hospitals will wind its way down to the already-suffering device market, and despite growth trends globally, the device market in the US may suffer in terms of growth.    Kalorama comments about the global device market in its report, The Global Market for Medical Devices 

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True Costs of the Flu

Though recently (as of mid February 2013) the flu season is showing signs of winding down, 2012 - 2013 has been a strong flu season, particularly dominant H3N2 strain, which was last seen a decade ago, in 2002-03. Not only with is there an increase reported flu cases but also with the more severe incidences of hospitalizations and other diseases (pneumonia), according to CDC dataRecent healthcare provider 

Health care provider Concentra looked at the true cost of influenza on the American economy.  (http://www.concentra.com/newsroom/press-releases/concentra-examines-the-true-cost-of-flu.aspx)

From their report "Below are some actual statistics and costs directly related to the flu that employers and individuals face due to an influenza outbreak:

--According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, influenza is responsible for a total cost of over $10 billion per year in the United States. A future pandemic could result in hundreds of billions of dollars in direct and indirect costs.

--Every year, businesses spend approximately $10.4 billion on flu-related illnesses in direct costs for hospitalizations and outpatient visits.

--A study of the impact of influenza on productivity found that the last flu season resulted in 111 million lost work days."

These costs should be a part of the marketing message of providers of products to combat the flu - antiviral products, vaccines and diagnostics.   

Vaccines may see a boost from the flu season, though the product sales take time to catch up with the outbreaks.  With continued publicity for flu vaccines, and with customers racing to doctor’s offices and pharmacies to get the flu shot, there’s a natural tendency to think that this means big revenues for those who make flu vaccines. That’s not entirely out of the question but as Kalorama has been watching the industry for some time, we know that predicting vaccine markets is a little complex.  Our vaccine analyst makes the following point:

“I think this will increase demand for flu shots this season  although it's not clear if that demand can be supplied. Orders were put in months ago. Maybe it can be filled   maybe just partially  not sure. I don't think it will cause a huge surge, though, because the big recent jump in flu vaccine was due to stockpiling of pandemic flu vaccine. That isn't the case here. So I would expect a moderate increase but not enormous.”

For more information on flu vaccine markets, consult Kalorama's full-length study on vaccines, Vaccines 2012-2016, available on Kalorama's website:  http://www.kaloramainformation.com/Vaccines-Players-Trends-7140769/

IKEA Food Scare Highlights Food Safety Diagnostics

The recent discovery that some of retailer IKEA's trademark meatballs in its European stores contained equine DNA will focus attention on the need for better controls for the food supply for some highly dangerous threats, according to Kalorama Information. The healthcare market research publisher said the recent coverage of several contamination and impurity incidents in food will drive sales of food safety diagnostics technologies. Kalorama covered the market for food safety testing products in its recently published report, "Food Safety Diagnostics."

It's a rough story for a fantastic retailer but it highlights the damage that a food safety scare can do to a company.  This is an international retailer that used food only as a marketing item and can rely on positive PR of the quality and price of furniture products to survive. For a food company, this might have marked the end of business. 

For its part, IKEA has stopped sales of Swedish meatballs from its 18 UK sites and stopped sales from the same run in 12 other European countries after Czech inspectors found equine DNA in a consignment last week. IKEA is a furniture retailer but sells the meatballs in its novelty cafeterias in its huge box stores. The checks were carried out in response to a Europe-wide scandal that erupted last month when tests carried out in Ireland revealed some beef products contained horsemeat. Kalorama noted that in the largest market, the United States, IKEA says its meatballs are sourced from an American supplier.  They also say the meatballs in the USA contain only beef and pork, which should limit some of the damage in the world's largest market. 

However, Kalorama sees that the problem is not only with authenticity of food but quality of food even when it is authentic.

The larger danger is not so much horsemeat but beef, chicken or even vegetables that may contain a toxin, and do physical damage to a person.  IVD companies who design medical tests now are the experts at developing testing products, and I would expect more of them getting involved. 

Testing for drug residue, for bacteria and for environmental toxins is essential to public health, according to Kalorama, and technologies such as microbiology and molecular testing exist that can assist food providers to calm public fears.  

Kalorama Information's "Food Safety Diagnostics" covers the market for IVD test products used for food testing purposes. The report details the market by threat, including Pathogens, Toxins, Agricultural Chemical/Veterinary Drug Residues, Allergens, and GMO/Authenticity. The report can be found at http://www.kaloramainformation.com/Food-Safety-Diagnostics-7326556/.

The Mystery of the Rancher's Affliction: Tracking Epigenetic Cancer

From Kalorama's Epigenetics Analyst, K. John Morrow, PhD: 

"Years ago I collaborated with a hematologist, Dr. Philip Periman, in Amarillo Texas, whose research interest was multiple myeloma. He saw a lot of patients with this disease; at that time (15 years ago) it was a death sentence, although it could be held at bay for some years. He was struck by its high incidence in ranchers and farmers in the Texas panhandle. Exposure to pesticides and other farm chemicals was long suggested as a risk factor. Recent work provides an explanation: these chemicals are epimutagens, myeloma appears to be an “epigenetic cancer” and it can be successfully treated with drugs that block methylation of cancer-causing genes.

Pomalidomide and lenalidomide are FDA-approved derivatives of thalidomide. They are slight modifications of the original thalidomide molecule, which achieved beneficial results, but also caused unpleasant side effects. When given to patients with multiple myeloma, they block the methylation of the gene p21^WAF . This proceeds through a modification of the chromatin structure of this region, so when unmethylated, the p21^WAF gene product is synthesized. This protein is a potentcyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor which functions as a regulator of the cell cycle. The end result is a self-destructive cascade resulting in the death of the tumor cells. These drugs have been so successful that they have kept myeloma patients alive for years, as reported recently by NPR (http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/02/18/172098789/targeted-cancer-drugs-keep-myeloma-patients-up-and-running).

So the picture of cause and effect looks clear. Pesticides and other epimutagenic compounds methylate suicide genes, shutting them off, so cells lose control of division. This results in cancers such as myeloma which can be destroyed by reactivating the suicide pathways through drugs that cause demethylation.  In the years to come we will see this as a recurrent theme in the origins and treatment of many different cancers. "

Kalorama Information's Epigenetics Market Research Report, authored by K. John Morrow, PhD, contains a full analysis of treatments and tests for epigenetics, including relevant companies and market sizes and forecasts.  The report  is available for purchase at http://www.kaloramainformation.com/Epigenomics-Future-Applications-7087795/