Scanning the future of medical imaging
The medical imaging market of the U.S. and EU contribute about 55 to 60 per cent of the global revenues, according to Frost & Sullivan. The remaining come from the Asia Pacific (APAC) and the rest of the world. These two markets can be defined as replacement markets in the sense that their installed base is plateauing, there are no new projects, but a greater number of units here are getting replaced. Whereas in the APAC and the other emerging countries, this trend is in the reverse as there are a greater number of Greenfield projects, which means that the installed base is growing.
Today, OEMs are looking at three to four per cent growth, when it comes to equipment. This shift is pushing them to look at other growth avenues such as moving from equipment selling to solution selling or consultative selling by entering into partnerships. OEMs want to partner with customers in a way that they can come to them with these three things. It is going to be a consultative set-up so whether the hospital has the capability to pay or not, or buy the equipment, they are going to install it and make monthly or annual fixed payments. The manufacturers are going to penetrate deeper into these hospital relationships by offering different value propositions.
This includes services such as training of the staff. For instance, if there is a new MRI with a new feature, and if the technicians are not able to use that feature efficiently then the investment is going to go to waste. So, these companies are going to visit the hospitals and see what can be done to improve the productivity and efficiency on outcomes by training the staff.
The post-pandemic era will see an increased focus on cost-cutting measures in radiology departments. There will be an increase in solutions and equipment’s that improve efficiency. There is also going to be a higher emphasis on the total cost of ownership rather than the cost of acquisition and how much a hospital is going to spend for the next 10 years in maintaining that equipment.