Arundhati Parmar

As patients age, get more empowered and healthcare is not solely concentrated in clinics and hospitals, another market for medical devices and diagnostics is growing: the home healthcare market.

A new report finds that the global home healthcare market will increase to $303.6 billion in 2020, up from $176.1 billion in 2013. The market is broadly divided into devices and services, according to Transparency Market Research, which published the report

Home healthcare devices market can be further subdividedn into diagnostics and monitoring devices, therapeutics devices, mobility assist devices and medical supplies.

The market for diagnostics and monitoring devices segment account for the lion's share of the home healthcare devices market overall. But the fastest growing segment is therapeutics devices, which is expected to grow at more than 10% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2014 to 2020. They comprise insulin delivery devices, nebulizers, ventilators and CPAP devices to treat sleep apnea, IV equipment and dialysis equipment.

The services segment is the largest within the overall global home healthcare market, providing services like rehabilitation, telehealth and telemedicine, respiratory therapy, infusion therapy and unskilled home healthcare services. 

Demographics iA a major contributing factor of the trend toward greater demand of home healthcare devices and services. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of people who are 65 years and older is expected to increase to 2 billion by 2050 from 605 million in 2000. 

Some of the bigger players in the home healthcare market are 3M Health Care, Bayer AG, Abbott Laboratories, Cardinal Health, GE Healthcare, Johnson & Johnson Services, Gentiva Health Services and  Invacare Corporation among others.