While most of it is structured best for subscribers who use it for propension analysis and to uncover new sales opportunities, there are any number of basic data points that can be helpful for all kinds of Latin American healthcare professionals. With them in mind, we’ve created what we expect to be the first in a series of infographics on Latin American hospitals and healthcare so that our fellow professionals have a quick and handy resource for reference.

Click below to download GHI’s Latin American hospitals infographic.

The theft in medicines has led to the loss of approximately USD2.7 million and, also contributes to the rise of illegal trade of these products in the open market (street vendors and internet). About 4% of the medicines sold in Mexico are irregular (1.5% are for sale on the Internet and 2.5% in markets on wheels or illegal establishments), all of which represents approximately USD440 million a year.

The Unefarm, the authorities of the Federal Commission for the Protection of Health Risks (Cofepris) and the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) work in coordination to report the theft of lots of merchandise and detection of irregular market or web pages without the corresponding certificate. The Unefarm stated that from 2013 to date the federal authorities have suspended about 17,000 illegal advertising advertisements linked to health, of which 67% are on the internet.

The organization mentioned the existence of an international agreement between health agencies of Mexico, Colombia, Paraguay and Central America, in coordination with Spain, to combat this type of sites and, other agreements with portals such as Free Market and Second Hand for monitoring, in collaboration with the Cyber ​​Police.

In the last year alone there were at least 50 robberies and assaults to pharmacies in the eastern area of ​​the state of Mexico and Mexico City, reason why the entrepreneurs have had to resort to the purchase of Insurance policies, alarms and closed circuits of surveillance, but has been insufficient.

Aristeguinoticias

An example of this is the antiretroviral Kaletra, for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which Abbot sells in Mexico at a price of USD2.96 per pill, which amounts to more than USD2,100 annually.

World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that about 700,000 people die in Latin America every year due to lack of access to medicines. Families in the region spend an average of 30% of their income on health issues. The AHF emphasized on promoting early detection of the disease to curb HIV epidemic.

Currently, only 60% of HIV positive people in Mexico are aware of the available treatments. Government can provide treatment only if the authorities can buy generic medicines at more affordable prices. The organization urged the Mexican government to take advantage of the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Additionally, pharmaceuticals prefer to extend their patents on medicines to generate profits at the expense human life. It was suggested by the AHF that patient organizations be included in meetings where governments and pharmaceutical companies discuss reductions in drug prices.

Noreste

As per the Colombian Immigration Agency records, the number of international passengers travelling for healthcare services, has grown by 22.9% every year (6,281 tourists in 2012 to 14,339 tourists in 2016).

The cities such as Bogotá, Medellin, Cali, Barranquilla, Cartagena, and Bucaramanga attract the largest number of international patients who are looking for quality care in healthcare services in the fields of ophthalmology, cardiology, dentistry, neurology, and oncology etc.

A report by Procolombia states that healthcare services in the country are approximately 40% cheaper than in the United States. Besides that, the geographical position of the country is an advantage with its access to a whole continent and highly trained human resources, additionally, international organizations such as Joint Commission International have certified five hospitals for their patient care standards. As per the ranking provided by América Economía, Colombia has 22 hospitals that are listed among the best hospitals in Latin America.

Explore More

To uncover sales opportunities within the Colombian market for capital equipment, medical devices, PACS, RIS and more, contact Global Health Intelligence to learn more about our hospitals database, which tracks more than 130 data points for more than 15,000 hospitals in  Latin America. You can also see which are the best-equipped hospitals in Colombia with our newly released ranking.

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.

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.

Obesity leads to numerous chronic degenerative disorders whose treatments are expensive and exhausting leading to rise in healthcare expenses.

The Ministry of Health (MoH) plans to increase awareness amongst its people about healthy lifestyles and prevention of obesity. The MoH will be implementing public policies to keep its citizens healthy and fit. The ministry plans to organize free exercise sessions in parks and public squares to improve public awareness about physical activity.

More than 2000 bariatric surgeries have been performed to improve the quality of life. At CDMX, “Health Kiosks” have been set up for basic health checkups. In addition to the 220 health centers and 12 clinics, the Supply Center offers care for those who willing to change their lifestyle.

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.

The manufacturing units located in Tijuana manufacture millions of medical devices from intravenous bags to artificial respirators for the global market. Around 70% of the medical device manufacturing companies in Tijuana are American-owned including Medtronic, Carefusion, DJO Global, etc.

New taxes on imports are likely to increase the cost of medical devices in the US with companies keeping their major operations outside the country. The US imports of medical devices have more than tripled from 2001 to 2016 reaching USD43.9 billion, according to BMI Research.

Mexico purchases most of its raw material and capital machinery from United States. If America imposes the border tax, Mexico could impose a tariff on raw materials supplied from the US. This will lead to increasing production cost making companies to shift to lower cost suppliers affecting the American suppliers.

2016 recorded the highest number of confiscations with 6.8 million medical devices. Condoms were the main units seized in the informal market. Other medical devices confiscated included surgical materials, healing materials, medical equipment and diagnostic agents such as needles, catheters, syringes, probes, cannulae and scalpel.

The seized products were those which did not comply with good manufacturing practices, conditions of registration, labeling, or unstable. The Commission also reported that highest number of confiscations were from Jalisco, Mexico City, State of Mexico, Oaxaca and Nuevo León.

Among the products seized by COFEPRIS the highlighted ones this year were the ~47,000 HIV test kits made in China that can give false negative results. The Commission said that these rapid test kits have no health records and could endanger the health of patients who have not received the required medical treatment. The regulatory agency seized a government warehouse in the state of Veracruz which was accused of supplying counterfeit medicines to state hospitals.

COFPRIS announced new rules of classification of medical devices will be published in April this year in the Official Gazette of the Federation. The agency plans to deregulate 701 products that do not require sanitary registration or are low risk. The new rules of classification of medical devices will be decided under three agencies namely the COFEPRIS, the Mexican Association of Innovative Industries of Medical Devices and the National Chamber of the Cosmetic Products Industry. Since 2015, 2,242 medical devices have been deregulated as they no longer pose a health risk.