Healthcare Reform among top challenges for medical manufacturers.
Press Release Summary:
According to ASQ survey, majority of medical device manufacturers identify healthcare legislation as having negative impact on industry in year ahead. Increased FDA oversight and compliance with regulations tops what manufacturers feel will be the biggest challenge in their industry. When it comes to innovative trends, manufacturers believe hottest areas include nanotechnology, IT/wireless capabilities for hospitals, and less invasive surgeries and devices.
Original Press Release:
Medical Device Industry Identifies Healthcare Reform Among Top Challenges
New ASQ Survey Also Shows Neurological Advancements Offer Most Opportunity
Milwaukee, Wis., -A new ASQ (American Society for Quality) survey asking medical device manufacturers about industry trends and challenges shows a majority (64.7%) identify healthcare legislation as having a negative impact on the industry in the year ahead. Increased FDA oversight and compliance with regulations tops what manufacturers feel will be the biggest challenge in their industry in the coming year.
The ASQ medical device industry survey results also sites these 2010 challenges:
o Impact of the healthcare reform
o Cost reduction while maintaining quality
o The effects of a proposed innovation tax
When it comes to innovation trends, manufacturers believe the hottest areas include:
o Nanotechnology
o IT/wireless capabilities for hospitals
o Less invasive surgeries and devices used
o Combination devices involving drugs and biologics
Hot Trends
Respondents were also asked to identify the hottest medical device opportunity in the next three years:
o 31.7% believe neurological advancements offer the hottest opportunity
o 30% believe it is in cardiovascular
o 25.2% said orthopedics
As for economic growth in 2010, a large majority of respondents (56.9%) believe their organization will experience more economic growth than in 2009. A little more than 27% believe they will experience about the same, and 10.3% believe there will be less growth than in 2009.
"Neurological, cardiovascular and orthopedic opportunities are such industry hotbeds because of the growing senior population," said ASQ medical device expert Dan Brown. "And while it's clear that population will contribute to the economic growth of manufacturers, the pending healthcare legislation has most major equipment purchasing organizations on a wait and see approach."
The survey was distributed to members of the medical device industry the week of January 18-22, 2010. There were a total of 234 respondents.
ASQ, (American Society for Quality) www.asq.org, has been the world's leading authority on quality for more than 60 years. With more than 85,000 individual and organizational members, the professional association advances learning, quality improvement and knowledge exchange to improve business results and to create better workplaces and communities worldwide. As a champion of the quality movement, ASQ offers technologies, concepts, tools and training to quality professionals, quality practitioners and everyday consumers. ASQ has been the sole administrator of the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award since 1991. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis., ASQ is a founding sponsor of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a prominent quarterly economic indicator, and also produces the Quarterly Quality Report.
