From the April 2012 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


New technology labs for cath angio are being built around user-friendly, rapid diagnostic and interventional systems coupled with high-quality flat panel detectors.

What will hospitals plan to purchase?
According to medical market research firm IMV’s most recent census of interventional angiography labs in the U.S., hospitals will most likely focus on replacing existing systems in the coming years, with about three-quarters of planned units being replacements. “There’s a relatively large installed base out there that have not moved to replace their equipment,” says IMV’s senior director of market research, Lorna Young.



IMV surveyed hospitals with 150 beds or more for its 2011 census, and found that about 40 percent of hospitals are planning to purchase labs from 2011 through 2013, with more than 95 percent of the planned purchases having flat panel digital detectors.

“Ninety-eight percent of planned units will be new units so it’s not like refurbished is a real big factor in that market since it’s such a critical care type of lab,” says Young. “The ones who are going to buy are going to update their technology, as opposed to someone buying one for the first time and only affording refurbished.”

For many third-party service companies, demand in the sector has waned as these high-end units move in to dominate the install base. In an email to DOTmed Business News, Wayne Horsman of Columbia Imaging explained that he has no regular cath lab or digital vascular customers anymore. “My opinion is that with software-driven systems that depend on expensive detectors, that ISOs cannot effectively support this equipment.”

John Vartanian, president of Medical Imaging Resources, has experienced a similar drop in his customer base for cath angio labs in recent years. “In the mobile world, it has decreased significantly over the last six years or so. The demand for this type of service in mobile has gone down as have the companies that have offered the services in the past,” he says.

But Dan Wheeler, president of Transtate Equipment Company, which specializes solely in cath angio systems, says that his part services and refurbished systems sales are up this year. He believes this growth is driven in part by how invaluable this kind of equipment is for hospitals when it comes to diagnosing heart disease. Another reason might be that some of Wheeler’s customers are large hospitals that are expanding cath angio to an array of specialists.

“A major thrust right now comes from neurovascular specialists—neurologists and neurosurgeons—to use cath procedures in brain studies. Major hospitals are investing in this technology for the neurologists,” says Wheeler.

April 2012 Magazine

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