POC Blood Gas and Electrolyte: will Advanced Technology Lead to Quick and Quality Outcomes?

Published On: December 2017

POC blood gas and electrolyte is the redoubtable technology introduced in the field of critical care setting, which reduces the total treatment time. Chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and kidney are gaining a significant attention due to the rapidly increasing number of patients having these disease. Many manufacturers are focused on enhancing the POC blood gas and electrolyte devices’ technology for providing the accurate results of PCO2, TCO2, HCO3, PH, so2, and electrolyte. Therefore, new players are also willing to enter the market.

The POC blood gas and electrolyte devices market has been on the rise over the past few years. Based on the MRFR analysis, the market is projected to reach USD 2,543.1 million by 2023 at a healthy CAGR of around 7.8%. The global market was valued at USD 1,503.3 million in 2016. The innovation and sustainable development of the POC blood gas and electrolyte device market is likely to continue growing in the coming future.

What would be the impact of the latest and advance technology over existing?

Over the last few years, the prevalence of diabetes, obesity, chronic kidney disease, liver disease and other chronic diseases has increased to a great extent. Thus, increasing population of these patients have generated demand for the technology, which helps in reducing the turnaround time of treatment and helps doctors to handle the increased footfall of patients with these diseases.

POC blood gas and electrolyte devices have improved the testing process owing to the number of advantages over clinical laboratory test. These devices are a portable and easy carry from one place to another. POC blood gas and electrolyte devices are user-friendly. Additionally, they reduce many intricate steps used in the clinical laboratory such as the need to collect a specimen, transport it to the lab, perform testing, and transmit the results back to the provider.

Though the POC blood gas and electrolyte devices are popular across the globe, it comes with few drawbacks such as it may produce an inaccurate result; it does not have precise methods as clinical laboratory does. Medical professionals are more focused on point of care testing because it reduces total treatment time and leaves a positive impact on the patient.

Where is the market heading to?

Currently, consumable products of POC blood gas and electrolyte devices are widely used owing to the one-time use of these products. Thus, it is generating a huge demand for such consumable products, which, in turn, drives the market growth.

Companies like Siemens, Abbott, F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd, and Radiometer are focusing on partnership and acquisition part for developing a new pipeline and introducing better and advanced POC blood gas and electrolyte devices to the market. For instance, In October 2017, Siemens healthiness acquired the Epocal Inc. and added epic Host2 in their product portfolio. Similarly, F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd has acquired the US-based TeraMedica, Inc.

Since these devices help to increase the treatment efficacy of chronic disease, the demand for these devices has increased as compared to the clinical laboratory. Furthermore, instruments devices are experiencing significant growth owing to features such as portability and easy to carry. The demand for portable POC blood gas and electrolyte devices has uplifted the market growth due to a feature of accessibility at home, clinic, and hospitals. Therefore, increasing demand for portable devices drives the growth of the global instruments devices market.

Who has the ability to hinder the market growth?

Laboratorian, clinicians, and administrators are worried about the accuracy that the devices produce because the results may show inaccurate results, unlike clinical laboratory. Thus, manufacturers are continuously engaged in the research for minimizing the error of this devices by introducing new technology with enhanced features. However, the high cost of tests and difficulty in integrating test results with hospital information system (HIS) may create a challenge for the POC blood gas and electrolyte devices in the market.

Then, what’s the future?

It is observed that the demand for this product is high from developing nations of Asia Pacific region such as India, China, and other owing to increasing awareness regarding healthcare, government support to improve the infrastructure of healthcare in their countries, and changing lifestyle. Additionally, increasing prevalence of chronic disease and huge population may boost the growth of the Asia Pacific POC blood gas and electrolyte devices market.