High-end market demand for medical equipment is still strong

Business Club April 18th Although many foreign companies have announced plans to enter the grassroots, the high-end market is still hot. GE, Meishi, Siemens and other companies have successively launched a series of high-end imaging equipment.

While announcing the launch of the "Spring Breeze Initiative" to enter the grassroots level, GE Healthcare has no silence in the high-end market.

Recently, the company officially launched a new generation of Discovery MR 750 3.0T magnetic resonance apparatus in Beijing. The product has achieved a major breakthrough in scientific research, development and clinical application, and can meet the multi-dimensional needs of high-end users. At the product launch conference, the directors of many tertiary hospitals were very interested in the product. With several foreign companies launching high-end products one after another, tertiary hospitals once again set off a boom in procurement.

With the advancement of medical reform, not only has the demand for low-end medical equipment market been strong, but also the demand for high-end medical equipment in tertiary hospitals has not shrunk. Many large hospitals are actively purchasing new equipment.

According to market research company Frost & Sullivan predicts that from now to 2015, China's medical equipment and equipment market will more than double to $53.7 billion.

According to the reporter, this value covers everything from patient monitors to stents, and most of these increases are likely to come from expensive MRI scanners and CT scanners, which have higher profits. Although many foreign companies have announced plans to enter the grassroots, the high-end market is still hot, and GE, Meishi, Siemens and other companies have successively launched a series of high-end imaging equipment.

Large tertiary hospital needs

According to statistics, compared with Europe and the United States, there is still a huge gap in the amount of equipment owned by large hospitals in China. Relevant data show that the number of PET and PET-CT per million people in the United States is 5-6, and that in Japan is 3, while that in China is only 0.1.

In terms of nuclear magnetic equipment, China has only 1.6 MRIs per million people, and the United States has 18 per million people. In the high-end areas, the equipment ownership of domestic medical institutions is still insufficient.

Dai Jianping, vice president of the Chinese Medical Association, said: "The NMR technology can play an important role in the research and diagnosis of Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer."

Owen Hanlin, President of Siemens Medical Systems China, said: “The number of CT scanners in China is very low, so the frequency of use is very high. A Chinese device scans up to 100 patients per day, which is more than three times the average use rate of German hospitals. ."

“At present, the utilization rate of high-end medical device equipment functions in the tertiary hospitals in China is only 50% to 60%. Many media believe that there is a waste in purchasing high-end equipment,” Dai Jianping pointed out: “In fact, even if it is a medical institution based on scientific research, it The equipment is also mainly used for clinical purposes, and many of the functions used for scientific research are not used at all. Taking the MR 750 as an example, there are three research institutes in the United States, so its functional utilization rate is high."

In addition, for tertiary hospitals, high-end medical equipment also brought a lot of revenue to the hospital. For Chinese hospitals with CT scanners, CT scan diagnosis is a major source of income, with a profit contribution rate of up to 30%.

As tertiary hospitals continue to increase demand for high-end medical devices, their performance growth is also worth the wait. Both GE and Philips' medical equipment business in China will see double-digit growth, and Siemens said its goal is to increase medical imaging equipment sales in China by more than 10% from the market's projected annual growth rate.

Foreign magnetic products become the first choice

As the economic downturn has caused a long-term recession in the US medical equipment market, according to market research firm Frost & Sullivan, the US medical imaging equipment and services market shrank by one-third last year, from US$14.4 billion to US$9.7 billion.

Therefore, in the next few years, GE, Philips and Siemens will intensify efforts to introduce more high-end products to the Chinese market. High-end imaging equipment such as the Discovery MR 750 3.0T magnetic resonance apparatus will enter the Chinese market one after another.

With nuclear magnetics entering the 3.0T era, high-end nuclear magnetic products will become the key products for hospital procurement. Magnetic resonance imaging equipment is widely used in the early diagnosis of major diseases such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and cancer because of its high density resolution, no radiation, and no harm to human body.

Professor Allen Song, director of the Brain Imaging Research Center at Duke University, believes: “The next 10 years will be a decade of brain function.” The medical device industry is a comprehensive industry with a high degree of technology and involves a wide range of disciplines. The technical threshold is high. It is difficult for domestic companies to launch high-end nuclear magnetic products. Therefore, the high-end nuclear magnetic equipment market is still monopolized by foreign companies.

In scientific research activities, medical institutions also put forward higher requirements for the stability of equipment. According to Chen Yan, GE Healthcare's vice president and general manager of the imaging division, “The MR750 brings more accurate functional imaging in the industry. In the past, the magnetic resonance imaging did not take longer for the brain to perform functional imaging, which caused severe data drift. Distortion: MR750's internal cold gradient increases the long-term stability of brain imaging fMRI by 200%, and the drift rate of acquired data reaches 0.03%, enabling more stable and more realistic brain imaging.”

In addition, tertiary hospitals also have their actual needs for purchasing foreign products. According to the reporter’s understanding, tertiary hospitals not only have daily needs for diagnosis, but also have certain needs in scientific research. Many hospitals plan to upgrade their own nuclear magnetic equipment from 1.5T to 3.0T.

As the only 3.0T series in China, MR750's unique gradient system enables eDWI to first achieve 3.0T systemic diffusion imaging. The eDWI provides a new high-resolution method for high-to-noise ratio high-resolution tumor screening in the clinic. It evaluates the diagnosis and prognosis at the molecular level and is an excellent choice for medical institutions conducting scientific research.

Wang Wei, director of the Department of Radiology at Xiangya Third Hospital of Central South University, said: “We have high-end equipment for two purposes: First, to improve the quality of medical care, whether it is qualitative, positioning, or quantitative, all diseases want to be able to timely and accurate diagnosis. To make more patients relieve the pain of the later period; secondly, high-end equipment can improve the development of Chinese medicine to the world's leading level. Our hospital has a very good team of clinical technicians and experts. After applying such high-end equipment, It can be compared with other countries in the world. In this case, our high-end positioning when purchasing equipment is completely accurate."