Wireless Patient Monitors Crowned Fastest-Growing Medical Device

Wireless patient monitors are the fastest-growing medical devices based on revenue earned, according to "Remote and Wireless Patient Monitoring Markets," a recent report from market research firm Kalorama Information. Beating out such high-growth areas as minimally invasive surgical devices, specialty catheters, and defibrillators, wireless patient monitors have seen revenues doubled in the past four years and are forecasted to double again in the next four years as well.

Driven by an aging population, their contribution to cost cutting, and their ability to deliver information directly to electronic medical records, wireless patient monitors experienced an impressive growth rate of 23% between 2008 and 2010, the report states. "It is unusual to see over twenty percent growth in the tight, volume-buy medical device market," says Bruce Carlson, publisher of Kalorama Information. "The new wireless patient monitoring systems aren't facing these obstacles because they appeal both to the need of payors to cut hospital stays and to the need of providers to deal with reduced staff."

The report cites Abbot Laboratories, Draeger Medical, GE Healthcare, Honeywell, Medtronic, and Philips Healthcare as leaders in the patient monitoring device field. However, new entrants may gain market share if offering a truly useful, innovative device, according to the report. "This is a very scattered market with large players but also scores of companies with a small amount of market share, and some of that forecasted growth is going to come from innovators whose names we may not have heard yet," Carlson adds.

For more information on remote patient monitoring, telemedicine, and wireless monitoring, check out some related articles and blog posts from MPMN's archives.