Respiratory Diseases Driving Increased Ventilator Demand
Homecare a key element of ventilator marketplace's stability, study reports.
- By David Kopf
- Sep 16, 2010
The global demand for ventilators and accessories has been so great that it actually softened the blow of the economic recession, according to a new report from InMedica, which put the 2009 ventilator market at $2.3 billion.
Moreover, a key driver to the ventilator marketplace's solid footing is homecare, according to InMedica (www.in-medica.com), which is the medical research division of IMS Research. The report forecasts for the global market for homecare ventilators to grow at a compound-average annual growth rate of 5.8 percent from 2009 to 2014. It attributed the growth to a number of factors, such as aging population and increased diagnosis of COPD.
In fact, homecare will buck the trend when it comes to ventilators, according to the report. While the fall-out of the global recession is expected to negatively impact healthcare budgets, and will result in "minimal growth" for mature markets, such as critical care ventilators, there will still be emerging opportunities for "emerging market segments" such as homecare, InMedica reported.
"The aging population has led to a larger proportion of patients requiring long-term care, further increasing healthcare expenditure," reported Kelly Barritt, Market Research Analyst at InMedica. "According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), chronic respiratory diseases account for more than four million deaths a year, which may have otherwise been preventable. It is suggested that as more people are living longer they are more susceptible to develop chronic diseases.This is increasing the demand for facilities that can offer assistance in the long-term treatment of respiratory disease."
Coupled with the rising prevalence of respiratory diseases such as COPD and sleep apnea, demand for homecare ventilation is expanding, the researchers reported. Uptake of homecare ventilation has been higher in the developed regions due to the infrastructure and support required, and more focus on homecare ventilators will be placed there, while the hospital market segment establishes itself in developing regions, InMedica reported.
About the Author
David Kopf is the Editor of HME Business.