The Miracle of Modern Medicine

By Greg Quirk, Mouser Electronics

Watson. Chances are you have heard the name of the IBM supercomputer that won a special episode of Jeopardy in February playing against the top two winners of the show – Ken Jennings and Brad Ruttner. One of the applications that is being investigated is feeding medical information into Watson to diagnose patients and recommend treatment.

But, using a supercomputer is not the only way to gather critical information about a patient’s condition. There are other, more accessible techniques available today that are vital to ascertaining what is happening with a patient. And these techniques are only possible through advances in technology.

Revenue Expectations

While many sectors suffered during the recession, the medical industry was one that continued to show strength. Companies shifted their focus from consumer devices, which are purchased with disposable income, to the industrial and medical industry. This led to projections in the industrial/medical semiconductor market to generate $33 billion by 2013.

In conjunction with the stability of this market, there was also a $19 billion stimulus package that was passed by Congress in 2009 for healthcare IT. This has created a significant amount of collaboration between IT providers and the device manufacturers to create solutions for the industry.

Change in the Industry

It is an interesting change as this industry had traditionally been overlooked. The technology is not cutting edge and the volumes are nowhere near the same level as consumer electronics. But, it offers a sustainable market that will always be in demand. And by applying new technology to the products, increased functionality and revenue can be derived.

Take the Bluetooth for example. By using this technology in the medical industry, nurses can monitor more patients and gather information in a more timely and less invasive manner, increasing the level of patient care. According to In-Stat, Bluetooth products in the industrial and medical market show the most growth potential with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) close to 85% between 2009 and 2014. No matter what industry you are in, those are amazing numbers and will make any executive look twice before dismissing the revenue potential.

Another example where technology improves on a traditional piece of equipment, like a stethoscope, is a digital stethoscope. Advanced functionality can be integrated to expand the functionality and increase the value it provides to doctors. A digital stethoscope can implement noise cancellation so that doctors can clearly hear the heart beat – even in busy or loud hospitals, or when noisy equipment is running in the background. Believe it or not, there are even digital stethoscope apps available for the iPhone.

Monitoring Boom

Given the state of the population, including old age, increased obesity and a more desk-bound lifestyle of technology workers, medical conditions need to be diagnosed, monitored and treated. One familiar piece of equipment, blood pressure monitors, are expected to have a revenue of over $790 million alone, with most of the demand driven by requirements from the U.S. and Europe.

Of course, blood pressure monitors are not the only products in the medical market. There are a number of others, each with significant revenue expectations over the next few years. You may not have heard of pulse oximeters before, but they are a way to monitor the oxygen saturation in a patient’s blood without requiring an actual blood sample, which makes the monitoring less invasive. More importantly, this product is expected to generate more than $575 million by 2015.

A final example is the electrocardiograph (ECG), which monitors the patient’s heart activity to diagnose cardiac issues. These products are traditionally purchased in the US, but the growing population and income levels in developing countries, specifically in the Asian Pacific region, will boost the market growth to close to 10% (even though these are high cost systems).

Conclusion

All said and done, the medical industry is definitely one that is to be watched closely, and participated in if possible. It offers a stable and growing market with significant revenue potential due to the influx of money granted by the U.S. stimulus package. And, more interestingly for many engineers, it takes traditional equipment, some of it hundred of years old, and re-imagines how to improve on it using today’s newest technology.

Greg Quirk has been a technical writer since 2004 focusing on semiconductor components, consumer devices and business trends. He has written numerous articles for industry publications and presented at technical conferences. His expertise has been sought by the financial community on multiple occasions to predict design-wins in popular consumer products.