Analyst Insights and Signify Premium Insights

The telehealth market has historically been addressed with very much a “hardware-centric“ approach in terms of solutions. Typically, solutions have been based around proprietary hardware (e.g. carts, viewing equipment, peripherals), with limited clinical workflow and IT integration and poor functionality in terms of clinical and process analytics.

Virtual reality is by no means a new technology, but recent technological developments have given it new life and attention, which is now enabling it to spread from gaming and consumer markets into industries such as manufacturing, construction and healthcare. However, how hard will the move into healthcare be? How can we use virtual reality in healthcare, and what are the challenges for adoption?

With the new year dawning, the competitive landscape for global medical technology is mired in uncertainty. Of the "big four" vendors (GE Healthcare, Siemens Healthineers, Philips and Toshiba Medical Systems) three are undergoing radical change, creating perhaps one of most volatile competitive market environments for some time. Add to this the visible presence of new market entrants from informatics, outsourcing, consumer technology and the rapidly growing artificial intelligence sector, and one thing is certain: market change is coming.

InTouch Health has historically supplied telehealth hardware and platforms primarily aimed at US enterprise settings and over recent years it has established itself as a leading vendor in this sector. It has done this by expanding its business both by investing heavily in its platform offering, as it attempts to scale its software business over hardware, and broadening the range of care settings it serves (e.g. community settings, acute settings and post-acute settings).

After a year of mixed fortunes, the global ultrasound market is set for a strong year in 2018. The three major geographic markets of EMEA, Americas and Asia are all forecast to grow faster than in 2017, driving a global growth rate of 5.1%, notably higher than the 3.2% growth seen last year.

Consolidation has been a key theme within the PHM industry for a number of years, but what does this latest deal say about Philips' strategy and future challenges?

AI was undoubtedly the belle of the ball at RSNA 2017, and rightly so. As the meeting drew to a close, a report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in the UK revealed that a NHS hospital had a backlog of 23,000 chest x-rays acquired over the previous 12 months that hadn't been formally reviewed.

Radiology is no longer a separate and isolated unit where an imaging order is submitted, and a report is sent out. RSNA this year illustrated how radiology is becoming more and more incorporated into the wider healthcare provider organisation. With IT having spread throughout wider healthcare and artificial intelligence slowly being accepted to increase efficiency and improve diagnostic accuracy, the stage is now set for strengthening the interactions between radiology and the rest of the healthcare organisation.

It was clear that AI was always going to steal the show. But despite the hype and mass marketing around deep-learning for decision support and diagnosis, other crucial market shifts were exposed during RSNA that were easily missed.

As discussed in our previous insight (link here) Philips has been highly active in the M&A market in 2017.

This show report presents the views from Signify Research's leadership team attending the 103rd Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). The show report contains four insights covering Enterprise Imaging IT, Deep Learning in Imaging, AV Viewing IT and General Radiography equipment.

RSNA is a chance for x-ray vendors to unveil their newest technologies and promote their products’ differentiating features. X-ray technology has previously seen leaps in advancement; first from analogue film to computed radiography (CR), and then the introduction of flat panel detectors for truly digital x-ray imaging.