The global ultrasound market is expected to reach $10.4 Billion by 2022. This is a huge industry with a lot of growth potential. Technological advancements and a rising number of chronic disease patients are impacting the growth. Also, there are a lot of investments in this industry both from the public and private sectors. GE, Philips, Healthineers are the key ultrasound imaging equipment manufacturer and they are investing a lot of money in this field. Today we will talk about the key trends that are shaping the ultrasound industry.
New Fields for Ultrasound
The ultrasound didn’t use to be used in a wide area of departments. Nowadays, ultrasound is used in areas like clinical specialties including surgery, musculoskeletal and gastroenterology, etc. along with radiology, cardiology, OB, and GYN. This wide use helps in expanding the customer base and increased growth in revenue. Like all other major trends, this trend started in the developed countries since they have the most sophisticated equipment and gradually spread throughout the less developed parts of the world.
Especially in two big economies, India and China, where there are plenty of big hospitals that have own budget for buying ultrasound. Ultrasound is also being used in acute and primary care both as a tool for screening and diagnosing. They are used as procedure guidance, too.
Artificial Intelligence
AI is doing wonders in every field it goes into. The same is true for ultrasound, too. Integrating AI into the algorithms for the purpose of automation of time-consuming tasks, quantification and choosing the ideal image slice from a 3D dataset of images has paid off. Identifying, segmenting, and color-coding the anatomy is done automatically by AI. It can also decide what the optimal scanning slice view should be for lots of exams. Deep learning is already having a big impact on cardiac imaging and it will only rise in the future. Its ability to simply acquisition will be advantageous.
3D Ultrasound
3D has truly improved ultrasound a whole lot. Although it has a slower frame rate and that is why it has a limited adoption but its abilities in some areas have rapidly increased therapies. With the help of 3D, surgeons don’t have to rely on their imagination or their knowledge as they used to during the 2D days. Although most 3D systems operate below 30fps, the manufacturers are getting better with better resolution and improved color, Doppler. As innovations increase, the frame rates will, too.
Portable Ultrasound Devices
Portable ultrasound devices are a great innovation and the world loves them. Why should it? They are easy to use, you can carry them around, and they don’t take much space. Major ultrasound imaging equipment manufacturers, like SonoSite, is producing portable ultrasound devices that are very handy and at a price that is 1/10 the price of a regular ultrasound device. They can transfer the images to the PACS system or compatible Android devices or connect to the WiFi and share.
But these portable devices cannot do all the things that traditional devices can, and their price for their use is still high. But thanks to innovations and increasing demand, we expect that their capabilities will increase and their price will decrease.
Conclusion
Trends always change. Trends that are shaping the industry now, will not be there in 2 years. But for now, these are the ones that are changing the ultrasound device industry and making it better. These trends will be helpful when understanding the ultrasound device industry.
