U.S. Ultrasound Market Grows to All-time High in 2013

May 30, 2014 — According to The Medical Diagnostic Ultrasound Market in the USA: Challenges & Opportunities in the New Millennium, 2013 report, the U.S. ultrasound market grew almost 3 percent last year compared to 2012 to reach an all-time high of $1.44 billion. Authored by long-time U.S. ultrasound market analyst Harvey Klein, Ph.D., the report reflects double-digit growth in the point-of-care market, which was partially responsible for the rise in market revenues.

“In spite of the uncertainties caused by the Affordable Care Act, continued declines in reimbursement and slow economic growth, we saw an uptick in ultrasound purchases,” said Klein. “Musculoskeletal and critical care point-of-care markets showed outstanding growth. Radiology grew 8 percent, but the gain was somewhat offset by a decline in cardiology.”

Klein attributes the decline in cardiology partially to the late introduction of the Philips’ EPIQ system, which he considers to be the next wave of premium systems. The expectation of this launch stalled the market and shipments of the system were too late in the year to have a positive impact on the growth of the cardiology market. This decline was also reflected in GE stretching its share lead by several percentage points over Philips, the number two competitor in the overall U.S. market.

“We did not see a shift from premium systems to lower performance systems,” Klein said. “We did see further consolidation in the industry with the acquisition of Ultrasonix by Analogic and the purchase of ZONARE by Mindray. The combined shares of the top four companies were relatively unchanged year-over-year remaining at about 75 percent.”

Each of the three top selling products had revenue of over $100 million and all were in the premium category. The GE LOGIQ E9 radiology system became the number one selling product on the market in 2013.

The report is the 32^nd annual report in the series. In it, Klein also predicts the U.S. ultrasound market will grow to $1.88 billion by 2018, representing an annual rate of growth of 5.8 percent.