Report: Medical automation technologies market to reach $23B by 2014

The U.S. market for medical automation technologies is worth about $13.1 billion in 2009, and is expected to reach $23.2 billion in 2014, demonstrating a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.2 percent, according to a market research report from BCC Research.

The report defined medical automation technologies as technologies for the electromechanical control or operation of diagnostic or therapeutic processes or systems or training of healthcare professionals, which result in a reduced need for human intervention, or no need at all. Examples of such technologies include health monitoring kiosks, automated x-rays and surgical robots.

Major end-user segments for automated medical technologies include hospitals, stand-alone outpatient surgical centers, physician practices, pharmacies and other retail establishments, home-care recipients, the military, medical research institutes, clinical labs, medical schools and other training programs, the firm said.

The firm said it broke the market down into segments for therapy, diagnostic and monitoring, and logistics and training. The therapy segment currently has the largest share of the market, worth an estimated $9.5 billion in 2009, which the report predicted will increase at a CAGR of 11.9 percent to $16.7 billion in 2014.

The diagnostic and monitoring segment has the second largest share of the market, worth an estimated $3.3 billion in 2009. BCC estimated that the segment is expected to generate nearly $5.9 billion in 2014, for a CAGR of 12.4 percent.

Lastly, the logistic and training market is expected to be worth $272 million in 2009, and to increase to nearly $652 million in 2014, for a CAGR of 19.1 percent.

Around the web

RBMA President Peter Moffatt discusses declining reimbursement rates, recruiting challenges and the role of artificial intelligence in transforming the industry.

Deepak Bhatt, MD, director of the Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital and principal investigator of the TRANSFORM trial, explains an emerging technique for cardiac screening: combining coronary CT angiography with artificial intelligence for plaque analysis to create an approach similar to mammography.

A total of 16 cardiology practices from 12 states settled with the DOJ to resolve allegations they overbilled Medicare for imaging agents used to diagnose cardiovascular disease.