Medical Ultrasound Systems Market Reaches USD 6.5 Billion in 2015

The medical ultrasound systems market grew to USD 6.5 billion in 2015, driven by advancements in imaging quality and workflow, growing awareness of radiation dosage with other imaging modalities, flexibility, ease of use, and relatively lower cost as compared to other medical imaging methods. These are the latest findings of Kalorama Information, (New York, NY, USA), an independent medical market research firm.

Ultrasound continues to be a safe, patient-friendly, and low-cost and effective imaging technology that helps radiologists and others gather clinical data about patients. With health care providers broadening their use of ultrasounds for different specialties, ultrasound remains among the fastest growing medical imaging modalities, driven by ongoing advances in equipment and widening range of clinical applications.

Ultrasound finds application in obstetrics and gynecology, cardiology, oncology, urology, angiology, and ophthalmology. Ultrasound is also being used as a rapid imaging tool for diagnosis in emergency rooms due to its ability to image structures without using radiation and perform faster in comparison to X-Ray or other radiographic techniques.

Additionally, ultrasound is capable of reducing the cost and pain associated with a treatment as it does not require surgery (biopsy) or the use of a radiocontrast agent, as needed in the case of computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which can be hazardous and unsafe at times.

In comparison to their earlier size of a kitchen refrigerator, ultrasound systems are now the size of a smart phone or tablet, but deliver a better performance and are smarter due to software enhancement tools. Clinicians can seamlessly upload patient-related data, like medical images, video and audio files, from a tablet, smart phone or personal computer to digital patient records and view them on a tablet, smart phone, laptop or personal computer.

"Helping to fuel growth is miniaturization and the adoption of handheld and portable ultrasound systems, which have opened up new market niches for the imaging modality, such as emergency medicine and anesthesiology," said Bruce Carlson, Publisher of Kalorama Information. "Handheld ultrasound systems are easier to use and more convenient, for instance, when diagnosing patients with physical disabilities."

More group practices and hospital departments are adopting advanced analytics tools for data to streamline their work flow and improve efficiency for ultrasound and other imaging modalities. Developing technologies are making it possible to clinically apply ultrasound as an initial diagnostic tool for identifying diseases which could not be identified earlier. It also reduces diagnosis errors and results in faster communication between departments inside and outside the hospital, thus optimizing efficiency, accuracy and workflow.

The leading manufacturers in the medical ultrasound systems market are Analogic (Peabody, MA, USA), Carestream Health (Rochester, New York, USA), Cephasonics (Santa Clara, CA, USA), Esaote (AJ Maastricht, Netherlands), GE Healthcare (Little Chalfont, UK), Hitachi (Wallingford, CT, USA), Imorgon Medical (San Mateo, CA, USA), Mobisante (Redmond, WA, USA), Philips (Eindhoven, The Netherlands), Shimadzu (Kyoto, Japan), Shenzhen Bestman (Guangdong, China), Siemens (Erlangen, Germany), Signostics Ltd. (Adelaide, Australia), SonoSite (Bothell, WA, USA), and TomTec Imaging Systems (Unterschleißheim, Germany).

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