Why North America Has Unmet Need for Respiratory Care Devices?
Asthma affects 235 million people around the world, while 210 million suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The key risk factors for these and other respiratory diseases are air pollution, tobacco smoking, genetic factors, and certain pre-existing conditions. Thus, with the increase in the number of patients suffering from such disorders, the footfall at primary-, secondary-, and tertiary-care hospitals is increasing. As a result, pulmonology departments are getting bigger and bigger, with more pieces of equipment and a larger staff.
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Such devices are not only found in pulmonology departments, but almost everywhere in a medical center, including patient rooms, operating rooms, observation rooms, diagnostic laboratories, sleep laboratories, intensive care units (ICUs), and emergency rooms. This is because breathing issues are not limited to those suffering from a specific respiratory disorder, but to patients with several types of diseases, those undergoing surgeries, and those in trauma centers.
Respiratory care devices include therapeutic, diagnostic, and monitoring systems, as well as consumables and accessories. Some commonly used therapeutic devices are positive air pressure (PAP) systems, ventilators, masks, humidifiers, and nebulizers, while diagnostic and monitoring devices include spirometers, pulse oximeters, capnographs, and gas analyzers. In today’s times, with the COVID-19 pandemic having already taken over two million lives, the demand for all these respiratory care devices is increasing.
For instance, seeing the rising case count in Delhi, India, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ordered 1,200 bilevel PAP (BiPAP) machines for ICU beds in November 2020. Moreover, as per an article by Invest India, in just three months of 2020, over 60,000 ventilators were manufactured domestically, as the demand for them by June that year was projected to stand at 75,000 units. In addition, a May 2020 article in The Hindu had pegged the ultimate demand for such systems at 150,000 units. Similarly, the Department of Health and Social Care of the U.K. procured 15,000 mechanical ventilators in merely four months.
Though after the COVID crisis is over, the procurement might slow down, but it will certainly not stop, because the patient footfall due to other reasons will start picking up. For instance, in emergency care settings, patients often display labored breathing or none at all, which is why ascertaining the functioning of the lungs is important. For this, capnographs, pulse oximeters, and gas analyzers are widely used. Similarly, even during and after surgery, many patients are supplied oxygen via mechanical means, as they are often unable to breathe on their own.
Thus, with the rising hospitalization rate, the demand for different types of respiratory care devices will also increase.