Revenues from ultrasound scanners in the U.S. rose more than 5% last year compared with 2005 on the heels of increasing demand for echocardiography. A drop of 23% in upgrades, however, damped overall growth to just 2.6%, according to a new report by Klein Biomedical Consultants. Still the ultrasound market rose to a record $1.33 billion in 2006 and could go much higher. Sales are expected to grow at an annual rate of 5.8% to reach $1.76 billion by 2011, according to the report, “Medical Diagnostic Ultrasound Market in the USA: Challenges & Opportunities in the New Millennium, 2006.”
Revenues from ultrasound scanners in the U.S. rose more than 5% last year compared with 2005 on the heels of increasing demand for echocardiography. A drop of 23% in upgrades, however, damped overall growth to just 2.6%, according to a new report by Klein Biomedical Consultants. Still the ultrasound market rose to a record $1.33 billion in 2006 and could go much higher. Sales are expected to grow at an annual rate of 5.8% to reach $1.76 billion by 2011, according to the report, "Medical Diagnostic Ultrasound Market in the USA: Challenges & Opportunities in the New Millennium, 2006."
Much of last year's growth came from the cardiology segment, which for the first time surpassed total radiology ultrasound revenues, including upgrades, according to Harvey Klein, Ph.D., president of Klein Biomedical. Cardiology ultrasound product revenues grew more than 11%, while the other three traditional markets - radiology, ob/gyn, and vascular surgery - showed little, if any change, he said. Philips' iE33 echocardiography system was the U.S. top seller in 2006.
Traditional markets accounted for 60% of total product sales growth in 2006, he said. Emerging markets, including emergency medicine and anesthesiology, contributed to the remaining 40% and grew twice as fast as the overall market in product revenues. Klein attributed the growth to strong demand for hand-carried ultrasound systems, which grew 30%.
The overall leader, based on product sales and upgrades, was Philips Medical Systems, followed by GE Healthcare, Siemens Medical Solutions, and SonoSite. In product revenues alone, however, GE led the way, followed by Philips. This order will not change over the next three years, according to Klein.
Traditional markets will grow slowly, less than 3% annually, while emerging ones will continue to boom, registering more than 16% growth per year. Sales of PDA-type, hand-operated ultrasound systems could contribute almost 1% to the growth rate of the overall ultrasound market, Klein said.
Although primarily a U.S. study, the report also summarizes the worldwide outlook. Klein Medical estimates that overall ultrasound product sales grew worldwide from $3.9 billion in 2005 to $4.1 billion in 2006, excluding upgrades and service revenues. This represents a 6.7% growth, which was helped slightly by favorable currency exchange rates. Worldwide ultrasound market leaders were GE followed by Philips, Siemens, and Toshiba.
The Reading Room: Racial and Ethnic Minorities, Cancer Screenings, and COVID-19
November 3rd 2020In this podcast episode, Dr. Shalom Kalnicki, from Montefiore and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, discusses the disparities minority patients face with cancer screenings and what can be done to increase access during the pandemic.
Study Finds Transvaginal Ultrasound Unreliable for Detecting Endometrial Cancer in Black Patients
July 3rd 2024Utilizing a threshold of less than 5 mm of ultrasound-measured endometrial thickness, the authors of a new study noted an 11.4 percent false-negative probability for endometrial cancer in Black patients.
New Study Shows Non-Radiologists Interpreting 28 Percent of Imaging for Medicare Patients
June 28th 2024While radiologists interpreted approximately 99 percent of all non-cardiac CT, MRI and nuclear medicine studies in hospital and emergency department settings for Medicare beneficiaries, new research shows significantly less radiologist review of cardiac imaging and office-based imaging.
FDA Clears Pocket-Sized ECG System and AI Technology for Detection of Cardiac Conditions
June 27th 2024Using a reduced leadset and deep neural network algorithms trained on more than 175 million electrocardiograms, the KAI 12L technology reportedly detects up to 35 cardiac determinations, including acute myocardial infarction.