The growth in the market is promising and currently accounts for ~5% of the medical device market, and is anticipated to capture more than 25% market over the next few years. Platforms are the budding part of the connected medical devices market. Few platforms are needed when compared to processors or sensors, the platforms represent aggregation points for data gathered from network endpoints.

However, as the number of on-premise and cloud solutions for collecting and analyzing device data increase so does the importance and value of platforms. The Internet of Things (IoT) is beneficial for the Connected Medical Devices market where new opportunities are abundant for current medical device manufacturers and connectivity specialists. Suppliers of sensors, platforms and processors are partnering with device manufacturers and service providers to address escalating demand for clinical devices. Also, regulatory reforms by the FDA and other agencies are creating new opportunities for device manufacturers.

Despite its early stage, Connected Medical Devices market provides a sturdy base for other enabling technologies- connecting new and existing devices with either embedded processors or radio technologies, or external connectivity gateways. Connected Medical Devices should benefit the Embedded Processors market segment, where multiple microprocessors and microcontrollers are used by system integrators and OEM manufacturers. The sensor segment is expanding rapidly (24.9% CAGR) as new applications are deployed across device segments. In addition to the diversity of applications and participants in the Embedded Processors marketplace, chipset manufacturers provide multiple processor configurations, each adaptable to multiple designs for connected medical devices.

To fill this gap, Global Health Intelligence (GHI) decided to delve into its database (which covers 86% of all hospitals in Latin America and now includes Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay) to analyze which hospitals have the highest equipment counts in 4 specific categories:

• Patient care (number of beds)
• Diagnostic imaging equipment
• Cardiovascular equipment
• Maternity unit equipment

These four categories are critical pillars when evaluating patient care. The number of beds within an institution is often an indicator of the size of the hospital and may be correlated to the level of care. Diagnostic imaging equipment is essential to properly diagnose any number of life-threatening and chronic conditions. Cardiovascular equipment is just as important given the prevalence of heart disease in Latin America. A majority of births take place in hospitals and birthing is one of the main activities of most hospitals, which denotes significant importance to maternity units and infant care. While additional categories could have been included, GHI decided to focus on these 4 areas of care in order make the ranking more manageable.

Why Multiple Categories and Countries?

Rankings are often all-encompassing with no specific focus, such as the “The 50 best hospitals.” Given the complexities of healthcare systems in place and the context in which they operate, GHI opted to acknowledge these characteristics by creating a ranking per leading category. This also enables smaller yet more specialized hospitals to form part of the ranking.

GHI applied the same plurality by setting up the rankings per country in order to reflect local market dynamics accurately. For example, Brazil has over 200 million people and over 7,000 hospitals. It would be an unjust comparison to include Brazilian hospitals alongside those of Peru, for instance, a market that’s 10 times smaller.

Rankings for the Best Equipped Hospitals

The best-equipped hospitals in Argentina
The best-equipped hospitals in Brazil
The best-equipped hospitals in Chile
The best-equipped hospitals in Colombia
The best-equipped hospitals in Dominican Republic
The best-equipped hospitals in Mexico
The best-equipped hospitals in Peru
The best-equipped hospitals in Puerto Rico

Dive Deeper

This GHI ranking will give you an initial sense of which Latin American hospitals are best-equipped. But that’s just a surface view. It takes a deeper dive into the data to understand which market segments have the best potential to drive your revenues.

You can get this deep dive by subscribing to our database , which quickly lets you use data visualization tools to see which hospitals have the biggest needs and what those needs are. Parsing that is what will uncover opportunities for your sales team and allow you to grow your revenues in different markets. Check out this video to understand how the database can help drive new and existing revenue streams. Then contact GHI directly for an even deeper sense of how our database can be the perfect tool for your sales team.

Telemedicine is vital to expand the borders and provides the tools necessary for a patient to choose the doctor of their choice. Argentina generates approximately USD6 billion with export of Knowledge Based Services (SBC) that go through a cable and telemedicine is one among them.

The Omint health group of Argentina has an online medical platform for medical consultation through videoconference between a doctor and patient. Omint works with Instituto Cardiovascular de Buenos Aires (ICBA) on a program called “Balloon Gate” for patients with infraction. Once a patient calls for ambulance and in the times the ambulance reaches the Institute, patient data is sent to the clinic in electronic form reducing the diagnosis time and treating patient in the golden hour.

Argentina’s medical tourism is among the top five in Latin America and the low treatment prices drive the growth of this sector. As compared to the United States, surgeries in Argentina can cost up to four times less. Telemedicine is regarded as a fundamental technology for internationalization.

Asia-pacific and North America are expected to rise by 8.6% while Europe by 4.5%.

High cost of investment in technology followed by high profit margins of suppliers were cited as the prime reason for the rise. The study also shows that the prospects of controlling costs in short term are not optimistic.

Most insurers in all regions except for Middle East and Africa expect an upward trend in medical costs over the next three years. The study reveals that three out of four insurers surveyed (74%) pointed out the excessive use of medical services coming from a high prescription by doctors, as the factor affecting costs.

More than half (54%) pointed to excessive and inappropriate use of medical services by employees. According to the survey, increasing number of companies are offering their employees prevention plans, encouraging them to take responsibility for their own health.

Globally, four out of ten respondents offer welfare programs. In the US, three-quarters of insurers have these programs, while only half of European insurers provide these services. The supply of these services / programs is expected to grow.

The medical device cleaning market includes detergents and disinfectants used for cleaning and disinfection of medical instruments.

The market is primarily driven by rising incidence of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) and the increasing focus on disinfection and sterilization of devices. Disinfection segment accounted for the largest share, owing to the increasing demand for high-level disinfectants & sterilization for heat-sensitive instruments.

Among instruments, surgical instruments segment accounted for the largest share of the market. This is primarily attributed to the increasing number of surgeries and rising awareness of HAIs. Geographically, North America held the largest share of this market.

During the forecast period, APAC region is expected to have high growth due to growing healthcare awareness, increasing number of hospitals and spending. Increasing adoption of single-use medical instruments to avoid HAI risks may restrain the market. Steris Plc is the leading market player.

The company has a comprehensive range of cleaning chemistries and sterility assurance cleansing products and a significant global presence.

The report requested the government to consider the policies for allowing better distribution of professionals in locations deprived of specialists. Two migratory waves were observed in Uruguay; one during the dictatorship and the other during the economic crisis in 2002. However, the situation seems to have reversed with very few doctors migrating to other countries in search of better working conditions.

According to the Medical Union there is zero unemployment in the sector, yet 7% and 10% of Uruguayan doctors work abroad. The majority travel to Spain (51.7%) followed by Chile (24.4%). With the reversal of situation, doctors from other nations are moving to Uruguay for work, especially from Venezuela, Cuba and Pakistan.