How will the market for defibrillators evolve in the next five years?

With technology continually improving, experts are seeing more and more trends arise in the defibrillator market.  From a recent TechNation article, experts discussed how the market for defibrillators will evolve in the next five years, and how that will affect service of the equipment?

• Availability:  In general, manufacturers have been able to make defibrillators increasingly successful as well as safer to use. Experts believe the challenge moving forward will be to make them more widely available.  In order to make defibrillators more available, they must become more cost effective. In addition, safety and performance will continue to remain a critical issue.
• Application:  According to experts, the evolution of defibrillators will be quite different based on application. The AED will most likely become more deployed in commercial non-medical application, and the corresponding acquisition cost will fall. As the population ages, it is highly likely that the market will demand an inexpensive home model. They could even become as common as fire extinguishers. With respect to ALS devices, defibrillator manufacturers will have to embrace the need to transition defibrillators from emergency response devices to therapy products with corresponding reimbursement schedules.
• Additional Maintenance:  The uncertainty in both health care and the economy over the past few years has led many hospitals to keep their defibrillators longer than the typical five to seven-year life cycle. The experts suggest that this may lead to more maintenance required for the older units remaining in service. It is also projected that more new units will come into service over the next five years as hospitals replace aging equipment or realize that the function of defibrillators has evolved (CPR and use of end tidal CO2 monitoring) and seek to improve patient outcomes with newer technology.

These trends are affecting how the defibrillator market will evolve over the next few years. 

Looking for a defibrillator? Check out DXE Medical or Soma Technology.

Where do you see the Defibrillator Market in the next five years?