Reprocessed Medical Device Market Size to Triple by 2022

The opportunity for cost savings as well as efforts to reduce medical waste are driving rapid growth in the reprocessed medical device market.

The worldwide reprocessed medical device market is set to triple to $5 billion by 2022 as healthcare facilities look to cut costs and reduce medical waste. This forecast, from a study by Grand View Research, Inc., anticipates significant growth from the Asia Pacific region. 

The global market is expected to grow at an over 20% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Almost half (47%) of the $1.141 billion reprocessed medical device market consisted of North American business in 2014, but the report authors expect Asia Pacific to exhibit the highest growth as emerging markets in the region devote more attention to healthcare.

Growth will also be spurred by the increase in FDA-approved critical and non-critical cardiovascular reprocessed devices. Cardiovascular devices made up more than half of market revenue (55%) in 2014, and diagnostic electrophysiology catheters were almost a quarter of the reprocessed. cardiovascular devices. Positioning devices are expected to have the highest growth rate going forward, according to a release about the report. Laparoscopy devices, used in minimally-invasive surgical procedures, make up the next largest segment of reprocessed device market share.

Hospitals are the major consumers of reprocessed devices, at 46% of end users in 2014, according to the report. Using reprocessed devices can help their bottom line, as the release cites a statistic from the Association of Medical Device Reprocessors (AMDR) that hospitals can save up to 50% on every reprocessed device purchased. Reprocessing also has kept 8000 pounds of medical waste out of landfills annually, the report noted.

There are a number of companies in the reprocessed medical device industry, including well-known names like Stryker Sustainability Solutions, Philips Healthcare, GE Healthcare, Siemens Healthcare, and many more. 

In the past, there was some skepticism of reprocessed single-use devices, but those concerns seem to have faded, as third-party reprocessing is now common among hospitals. The AMDR recently announced that its members work with 13 of the top 15 hospitals on U.S. News & World Report's Honor Roll and that reprocessing is a "best clinical practice." A study of more than 3000 devices published in the Journal of Medical Devices in December found that defect rates were actually much higher in new bipolar and ultrasound diathermy devices than in reprocessed devices.

[Image courtesy of COOLDESIGN/FREEDIGITALPHOTOS.NET.]