Impressive yet Uneven 2020 Growth in Chile’s Medical Equipment Market

April 23, 2021

While Chile’s medical equipment/devices market did not post the broad growth of Argentina’s in 2020 — nor a significant increase in a category like diagnostic imaging equipment, as occurred with Mexico — Chile still posted some impressive numbers. Moreover, Chile’s 362 hospitals increased their counts of both basic equipment and high-ticket specialized equipment, which suggests diverse targeting potential for companies. Here’s a look at the areas that expanded the most.

Basic Breakdown

Even though Chile did not suffer as strongly from the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, its increases in basic equipment shows that the crisis still impacted its healthcare systems:

Patient monitoring systems: 52.3% increase
Infusion pumps: 47.7% increase
Anesthesia machines: 9.2% increase
Ventilators: 4.1% increase
EKG machines: 6.8% increase
X-ray machines: 1.9% increase

Despite these jumps, Chilean hospitals didn’t increase their levels of all forms of basic equipment: for example, counts of ultrasound machines went down by 2.1% in 2020.

A Special Case

Several specialized equipment types saw surges in Chilean hospitals in 2020, while others contracted sharply. The list below includes both the equipment that most decreased and that which most increased in Chile in 2020:

Endoscopic lithotripsy equipment: -27.7% decrease
Cobalt therapy machines: -15.5% decrease
Stereotactic mammography machines: -12.3% decrease
Lithotripter machines: -7.5% decrease
Hemodialysis machines: -2.5% decrease
Bone densitometers: -1.9% decrease
Fluoroscopes: -1.9% decrease
C-arms: 1.2% increase
Angiograms: 5.4% increase
Gamma cameras: 6.2% increase
Laparoscopic surgery equipment: 8.3% increase
MRI machines: 15.1% increase
CT scanners: 18.6% increase
Linear accelerators: 19.8% increase
PET systems: 34.6% increase

Medical Equipment Market Growth in Chile, 2019-2023

For sales and marketing planning, longer-term projections are more helpful to strategize, map out product launches and target markets more effectively. GHI’s HospiScope 2020 report not only lists the best-equipped hospitals in Chile and in 9 other key LatAm markets, it also uses proprietary HospiScope data to forecast growth/contraction for the next few years. Below we break down these numbers for the equipment types we’ve discussed thus far. The uneven nature of Chile’s medical equipment market, which we saw with the 2020 figures, is even more pronounced in these near-term projections, which indicate the compound annual growth rate for 2019-2023.

Projected to contract:

Cobalt therapy machines: -25% decrease
Patient monitoring systems: -20% decrease
Infusion pumps: -19% decrease
PET systems: -16% decrease
Stereotactic mammography machines: -13% decrease
Lithotripter machines: -9% decrease
Angiograms: -6% decrease
Fluoroscopes: -5% decrease
EKG machines: -4% decrease
CT scanners: -3% decrease
Linear accelerators: -2% decrease

Projected to expand:

Gamma cameras: 64% increase
Bone densitometers: 28% increase
Anesthesia machines: 17% increase
Endoscopic lithotripsy equipment: 10% increase
Laparoscopic surgery equipment: 6% increase
Ventilators: 5% increase
Hemodialysis machines: 4% increase
MRI machines: 4% increase
X-ray machines: 3% increase
C-arms: 1.2% increase

Going beyond the Numbers

What is driving the uneven numbers we are seeing in Chile?

Which of Chile’s hospitals are the best sales prospects for basic medical equipment?

Which hospitals in Chile tend to acquire more high-tech medical equipment?

To get at these answers and make a deeper dive into the Chilean medical market, GHI offers a suite of services.

HospiScope tracks data for nearly 90% of the region’s hospitals, allowing you to pinpoint which hospitals in Chile are acquiring different types of equipment and much more.
SurgiScope tracks the most popular surgical procedures in Chilean hospitals, allowing you to gauge market demand for medical products.
ShareScope lets you know who the market leaders are for different equipment types in Chile.
In-Scope delivers customized research to give you the specific data you need about the Chilean market.

Finally, if you’re more interested in keeping up with changes with hospitals in Chile or in 11 other markets, explore our Latin American Hospital Monitoring Service. Subscribing to this service gives you data updates every week on the hospitals in the LatAm country (countries) of your choice. You access the data using a Power BI platform that displays this fresh information in an easy-to-use format that make it ideal for your planning or presentation needs.

GHI Team