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Written prescriptions were one of the major sources for confusion and medication errors in the past, and this gave rise to need for devising the system where pharmacists, nurses and physicians would be on the same page. The advent and rise of barcoding, RFID and software in healthcare area greatly enhanced the efficiency of all automation systems in healthcare facilities and drastically began reducing errors. Automated medication dispensing systems fill prescriptions and dispense them to the patient or caregiver. Large automated medication dispensing systems can handle over 700-800 prescriptions or more per day. However, comparing the size of most independent pharmacies and stores, the set-up may be installed in order to handle around 300-500 prescriptions each day. These machines are regulated stringently by the healthcare authorities since many devices handle crucial and potentially damaging drugs as well. Demand for automated medication dispensing will continue to grow solidly across regions at a CAGR of 6.2% from 2015 to 2019. The market for automated dispensing systems is fragmented although consolidation through mergers & acquisitions and strategic collaborations continue. Key players in this market segment are Omnicell & MTS, ScriptPro, CareFusion, Talyst, Parata Systems, Cerner, InterMetro Industries (Metro Automated Dispensing), JVM (Korea), Capsa Solutions, Willach Pharmacy Solutions, Mach 4 Pharma Systems, Remidi, Synergy Medical (Synergie Médicale BRG Inc), Tosho, CRETEM Co Ltd, ARxIUM and Noritsu Medical among others.

SA-BRC analysts monitored trends in the external beam radiation therapy devices market across 6 regions of North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle-East and Africa. Radiotherapy has been accepted as the standard procedure for oncology treatments. Growing cancer cases boost up the prevalence of this treatment procedure globally at a very fast pace. This report covers the market analysis for various external beam radiotherapy devices or EBRT devices such as Gamma Knife, Cyber Knife, TomoTherapy, LINACs and Proton Beam Therapy.

There are two major configurations of CT systems, stationary and portable. Stationary CT systems sweep an intense electron beam across a stationary anode target that surrounds the patient. The X-rays are produced by a semi-circular array of emitters and detected by another stationary circular array of sensors. There are over four generations of CT systems that are in use today of which several models are stationary. This report considers stationary CT systems as those which cannot be moved from one operating room to another. Stationary CT systems market took the higher share as compared to mobile/portable segment with 81.8% of the global CT systems market. There is a greater demand for more affordable water-cooled scanners as compared to air-cooled systems and the lowering prices of these systems is expected to generate significant demand in coming years. With recent FDA and EU directives to focus more on reducing dose exposure, the refurbished market will face a challenge as compared to new devices. On the contrary, in the U.S the directive on applying a 2.3% device tax to the new medical systems has brought the situation to a stalemate. Key players in the segment are GE Healthcare, Philips Healthcare, Siemens, Varian Medical Systems, Analogic Corporation. The market share also comprises of Asian powers such as Hitachi Medical and Toshiba.

SA-BRC survey of over 3000 fitness band and smart watch users across the world showed that over 40% users did not care for display of details on the wearable device as long as they could keep tabs on their health parameters through mobile apps. This puts a question on whether smart watches will really take on the wearables market and shake down the share of popular fitness trackers such as the Flex, Shine, Up, Fuel among an increasing plethora of other options.

Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring is the measuring of blood pressure levels of a patient at regular intervals over a period of 24 hours. Measurement of the blood pressure levels is carried out while the patient performs normal daily activities including sleep. Ambulatory blood pressure monitors increase the accuracy for the diagnosis of hypertension. Ambulatory monitoring may be useful for the diagnosis of white-coat hypertension and masked hypertension. These monitoring devices provide more accurate readings than the isolated clinical measurements.

Tandem mass spectrometry systems utilize two MS systems where the first round of MS causes precursors to fall apart by various techniques of degradation and the second round of mass spectrometry separates the fragmented components by weight. There are several tandem mass spectrometry combinations that are available based on the type of requirements raised by a buyer. The MALDI Triple-TOF, Q-TOF and triple quadrupole are the most utilized types of tandem mass spectrometers in demand today. Tandem MS has been applied to several emerging areas in healthcare and life-science such as metabolomics for studying vitamin biochemistry, environmental and food toxicology besides its primary use in proteomics. Some recent rat plasma studies have conducted research on various constituents such as brazilin and pinosylvin in pre-clinical pharmacokinetic studies and buflomedil in human plasma for bioequivalence studies. Q-TOF is expected to compete against FT-MS due to a competitive cost and quality in terms of resolution delivered by both systems.

A significant increase in cases of prostatic cancers and benign prostatic hyperplasia observed in Latin America has greatly enhanced the market demand with several players such as Allium Medical investing early on. Asian countries particularly Korea and Japan are strong markets with presence of companies such as Taewoong Medical, Stentech, Micro-Tech (Nanjing) Ltd and MI Tech. Since these devices are yet to receive marketing approvals, the cost of the devices is low and the sales are restricted to few international countries where market growth is moderate. Since several market players have originated from the Asian countries, the market opportunities in other regions of the world are abundant. Manufacturers have virtually untapped markets in Europe, Latin America, Middle-East and Africa.

The report also presents the current market and forecast of veterinary diagnostic imaging equipment purchased by different end-users such as veterinary hospitals, veterinary clinics and emergency/point-of-care veterinary services. The geographical analysis of the veterinary diagnostic imaging devices is segregated into six regions of North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle-East and Africa.

This study reports analysis on healthcare robotics trends across 6 regions of North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle-East and Africa. Increasing international conflicts have left a large number of wounded causing several thousand victims to end up as amputees every year. There are approximately 3-4 million people with seriously debilitating amputations across the world each year. In United States the total number of amputees living is approximately 2 million today.

Due to the advent of wearable medical devices, the greatest shifting trend is observed in the commercialization and commoditization of EEG devices. Manufacturers such as Emotiv and Neurosky are introducing disruptive devices that can be used and interpreted easily by a user which is increasing awareness of neurological disorders at an unprecedented level. This will bring about a large demand for EEG devices in the near future.