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Market Analysis: Patient Warming/ Temperature Management

Patient temperature management devices include technologies that are use to both lower and raise body temperature for patient comfort and improved health outcomes in a surgical setting.

Tue Aug 20 2013By Medical Dealer Magazine

 

Patient temperature management devices include technologies that are use to both lower and raise body temperature for patient comfort and improved health outcomes in a surgical setting.

Therapeutic cooling has been documented to help reduce fevers, particularly in situations where it can preserve the function and integrity of the brain and nervous system. Patient warming can aid patients suffering from trauma, sports injuries and hypothermia, and is a key component of neonatal care.

According to Frost & Sullivan Life Sciences & Biotech Senior Research Analyst Cecilia E. Van Cauwenberghe, the worldwide market for patient temperature management devices hit $1.88 billion in 2012, and could reach as much as $2.2 billion in the next five years, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.3 percent.

As is the case in many segments, the majority of those revenues (45 percent) came from customers in the United States, with European purchasers only slightly behind them. Van Cauwenberghe’s colleague, Sowmya Rajagopalan, Program Manager with the Healthcare Practice at Frost & Sullivan, notes that the European market growth is likelier to exceed that of the United States.

Rajagopalan further notes that the patient temperature management market is split about 70-30 among warming and cooling devices, respectively. These technologies are used to help patients normalize their body temperature perioperatively.

The market for patient temperature management manufacturers is fragmented as well, the analysts said, and had been marked in recent years by significant acquisitions. Equipment tends to be on a five-toseven- year average replacement cycle.

Among those significant acquisitions noted by Van Cauwenberghe include the purchase by Philips Healthcare of InnerCool Therapies and of Alsius Corporation by ZOLL in 2009; the 2008 acquisition of Vital Signs, Inc. by GE Healthcare; the 2010 purchases of Gaymar Industries by Stryker and of Arizant Healthcare by 3M; and the 2011 acquisition of Medivance by C. R. Bard.

“The average acquisition value is approximately 3.8 times that of the sales revenues, which clearly indicates that globally, patient temperature management is expected to witness significant growth in the next five years,” Van Cauwenberghe says.

Rajagopalan added that the acquisitions followed a big-fish-little-fish relative comparison, with larger buyers strengthening their brands throughout the operating theater.

“It’s not about increasing market share,” she says. “It’s about expanding the product line in line with a bigger vision.”

Click here to read the full article in the August issue of Medical Dealer!

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