Written by
Cranfield, UK, 16th July 2024 –
The Global Patient Monitors market experienced a growth spurt during 2023, as delayed orders were realised, new connected solutions came to market, and enterprise-level monitoring solutions continued to gain traction. Consequently, the overall market CAGR to the end of our forecast period in 2028 will be in the low-single-digits. The Mobile Continuous Device and Cardiac Telemetry Device markets will, however, both achieve stronger growth potential, as the ability to continuously monitor patients throughout their care journey becomes a pre-requisite from early adopters in advanced health systems.
A New Normal is Needed
The COVID-19 Pandemic exacerbated the inherent inefficiencies in traditional patient monitoring systems, such as intermittent monitoring, alarm fatigue, and disparate data and workflows. The post-pandemic period of soaring inflation, clinician shortages, and budgetary constraints has done little to support the return of the status quo. It is clear that new solutions are needed.
In response, traditional patient monitoring vendors continued to build upon the advances reported on by Signify Research in its 2023 Global Patient Monitors Interim update.
Source: Signify Research – July 2024
Competition and Collaboration
GE HealthCare, at the forefront of the drive towards flexible patient monitoring solutions, continues to iteratively upgrade its solutions portfolio. In December 2023 it announced a partnership with clinical surveillance vendor AirStrip to become the exclusive distributor of AirStrip’s cardiology and patient monitoring visualisation mobile applications, allowing clinicians to view data from multiple patients remotely on a single mobile device screen. This was followed by another milestone in April 2024, with the FDA approval of its Portrait portable vital signs Monitor (VSM), rounding out Portrait’s existing continuous monitoring capability with a spot-check capability.
Healthcare providers, particularly in the US and increasingly so in Europe, are demanding vital signs monitors with a continuous monitoring capability allowing for flexible response to sudden surges in demand. This will add extra layers of workflow complexity – how to manage secure device authentication for multiple users, for example – which existing technologies, such as RFID, offer readily-available solutions.
Fellow US-vendor Masimo was rarely far from the news during 2023 and the first half of 2024. Leaving aside its legal battles with Apple and the recent boardroom drama, the company continues to innovate and branch out from its initial breakthroughs in the single parameter (SpO2) market. In October 2023 the company received CE Marking for its LiDCO Circuit-in-Cable (BIC) module for hemodynamic monitoring. Designed to connect to multi-patient monitoring systems, the new module allows for hemodynamic monitoring without the need for a specialist device.
This modular approach has been a feature of Masimo’s strategy, encapsulated by its Root platform Radius VSM platforms. For vendors such as Masimo, modular solutions that can integrate with traditional patient monitoring systems present the opportunities for customer wins that going solo will not.
Japanese vendors Nihon Kohden and Fukuda Denshi, dominant in their domestic market, are both seeking to leverage recent investments in their digital health capabilities to expand their presence in the US market. Both companies have launched remote ICU services in the US during the early months of 2024. Mindray, meanwhile, continues to compete with vendors from the US, Western Europe, and Japan, on many more factors than price. In October 2023 the Shenzhen-based company announced that, as part of an ongoing cooperative agreement with Edwards Life Sciences, Mindray’s BeneVision N-Series patient monitoring system would become the first in North America to integrate with Edwards FloTrac™ sensor for hemodynamic monitoring.
Edwards is considered the gold standard in hemodynamic monitoring, so its tie-up with Mindray is highly significant and points to the shifting dynamics in the market. How this collaboration will be impacted by BD’s recent $4.2 billion acquisition of Edwards’ Critical Care Product Group, which includes its hemodynamic monitoring portfolio, remains to be seen.
Last but not least, market leaders Philips continues to lead from the front. Its Visual Patient Avatar monitoring solution, which translates complex patient data into easily interpretable visualisations at the bedside monitor, was launched at the back end of 2023. In February this year, Philips announced FDA 510(k) clearance for its latest IntelliVue patient monitor software, including its proprietary Sounds Alarm Package which, designed to reduce that most perennial of clinician burdens, alarm fatigue.
From Siloes to Systems
The successful adoption of these and other technologies launching into the market, of which the above summary barely scratches the surface, require many pieces of the jigsaw falling to place. Traditional Patient Monitoring siloes must be broken down, clinical pathways must be reoriented, and hospital IT systems and infrastructure must be upgraded to ensure talk of ‘enterprise-level monitoring’ or ‘monitoring-as-a-service’ becomes more than just platitudes. Clinician-buy-in will be fundamental to the whole process.
The early signs are promising. Regular announcements of integration partnerships and emphasis on interoperability, like those highlighted in Signify Research’s summary from the annual HIMSS congress, signal a greater willingness to co-operate on the part of vendors. This should ensure that more patients benefit more quickly from the innovations from a wider group of vendors. Initiatives to create open standards, such as SDC, will add further weight to this though, as ever, implementation will be inconsistent across health systems and geographies.
The increasing prevalence of long-term, service-oriented patient monitoring partnerships between vendors and health systems provide more opportunities for genuine collaboration, honest feedback, and regular process and workflow improvements. It also gives vendors the chance to stand out from the competition in a market where the hardware is becoming increasingly more difficult to differentiate. They would be wise to grab the opportunity.
Future Gazing
Providers and vendors must also cast one eye on the future as they manage the day-to-day challenges of the present. How to plan for long-term, OpEx-led budgets when many healthcare systems are hostages to the fortune of annual Cap-Ex budgets which, in turn, are subject to the vagaries of public finances and changing political whims? How will emerging technologies and vendors disrupt existing Patient Monitoring market? Will, for example, continued improvements in Mobile Continuous monitoring devices render dedicated Cardiac Telemetry, Spot-check, or Single Parameter monitors obsolete?
This is to say nothing of one of the biggest single shifts taking place in healthcare, the transfer of patients out of hospitals and into ambulatory or home care settings. For some vendors, the focus in the short-term remains on in-hospital monitoring, using portable devices that could theoretically follow the patient home. New market entrants, BioIntelliSense and VitalConnect, for example, are already straddling multiple markets, from continuous in-hospital monitoring in lower-acuity areas to hospital-at-home and remote cardiac monitoring.
As the lines between care settings continue to blur, there will be no shortage of competition looking to exploit new opportunities. Thriving eco-systems, in nature and business, however, are as equally dependent on collaboration.
Related Research
Signify Research has recently published ‘Patient Monitors – World – 2024′, the third iteration of its global Patient Monitors market report. The report provides five-year forecasts for each segment of the Patient Monitors market, a detailed overview of the Competitive Environment, and analysis of the key trends happening in the market. New features in the 2024 version include additional country breakouts and installed base data by major product for each major region.
About The Author
Gareth joined Signify Research in 2021 as Senior Market Analyst in the Digital Health team, where he covered emerging markets including Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) and Ambulatory Diagnostic Cardiology. In 2023, Gareth joined Signify’s Clinical Care team where, his coverage areas include Diagnostic Cardiology and Patient Monitors
About the Clinical Care Team
The clinical care team provides market intelligence and detailed insights on the clinical care equipment and IT markets. Our areas of coverage include patient monitoring, diagnostic cardiology, infusion pumps, ventilators, anaesthesia devices, and high-acuity IT. Our reports provide a data-centric and global outlook of each market with granular country-level insights. Our research process blends primary data collected from in-depth interviews with healthcare professionals and technology vendors, to provide a balanced and objective view of the market.
About Signify Research
Signify Research provides healthtech market intelligence powered by data that you can trust. We blend insights collected from in-depth interviews with technology vendors and healthcare professionals with sales data reported to us by leading vendors to provide a complete and balanced view of the market trends. Our coverage areas are Medical Imaging, Clinical Care, Digital Health, Diagnostic and Lifesciences and Healthcare IT.
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