This report originally appeared in the June 2009 issue of DOTmed Business News

As we close in on the midway point of 2009, the medical industry is still facing a number of big issues that have many concerned, including those who sell, refurbish or service stress test equipment. Whether it's the sad state of our economy, the continued decrease in reimbursements or the increase in the number of clinics and medical centers closing down, to all involved it can be quite, well, stressful.

"We haven't had a lot of people drop off but we haven't seen a whole bunch of people jump on board," says Jim Gray, director of business development for Medical Integrated Services, which services stress test equipment. "The people we already have as customers, we are seeing them purchase less new equipment and taking care of their existing equipment but there hasn't been a new influx of repair bills. As many people as there are who are putting off on buying things new, a lot of people are also saying, 'let's use the system we have in redundancy before calling in the repair guy.' Everyone all across the board is feeling the effects."
Despite hitting record numbers in 2008, with industry sales of $65-$70 million, those numbers are expected to decline this year.

"The market has been growing slowly but steadily but this year we anticipate the market to decline somewhat," says Paul Brooks, commercial marketing manager, Diagnostic Cardiology & Stress, GE Healthcare. "Challenges in the industry include reimbursement, reliance on pharmacological drug testing due to increasing size of patients, communication to EMR and electronic data management."

According to Mordy Eisenberg of Absolute Medical Equipment, which sells new and refurbished stress test equipment, many OEMs are cutting costs to try and keep the market from declining too much, but that the downward spiral for them means an up-swing for the used market.




"As a retailer of primarily refurbished stress systems, we have seen an increase in sales of used systems," he says. "Although big name manufacturers like GE have been cutting prices on new systems in an effort to boost flagging equipment sales, refurbished equipment still costs far less. In this market of reduced reimbursements, sales of refurbished stress systems offer a very attractive value proposition."

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