U.S. Ultrasound Market Hits All-Time High

The U.S. ultrasound market, accounting for approximately 30% of the worldwide market, hit a record US$1.33 billion in 2006, according to a recent report.

The report, published by Klein Biomedical Consultants, Inc. (KBC; New York, NY, USA), a market consulting company, stated that although product revenues rose a respectable 5.3%, a 23% decrease in upgrades reduced the overall market growth to only 2.6%. The cardiology ultrasound market segment surpassed total radiology ultrasound revenues including upgrades for the first time in 2006.

"While cardiology ultrasound product revenues grew over 11%, the other three traditional markets--radiology, Ob/Gyn, and vascular surgery--showed little, if any change,” said Harvey Klein, Ph.D., KBC president. "Traditional markets accounted for 60% of total product sales growth in 2006 while emerging markets contributed the remaining 40%. The emerging markets grew twice as fast as the overall ultrasound market in product revenues. …This resulted from strong demand for hand-carried ultrasound [HCU] systems, a market that grew 30%.”

Klein reported that the leaders in the overall market, including upgrades, were Philips Medical Systems (Best, The Netherlands), followed by GE Healthcare Chalfont (St. Giles, UK), Siemens Medical Solutions (Erlangen, Germany), and SonoSite (Bothell, WA, USA). In product revenues alone, however, GE was the market leader followed by Philips. The Philips' iE33 echocardiography system became the top-selling product in the U.S. market in the year 2006.

The ultrasound market is expected to grow at an annual rate of 5.8% and reach $1.76 billion by 2011. While KBC believes traditional markets will grow slowly at a rate of less than 3%, emerging markets, although considerably smaller, will grow over 16%. KBC predicts the market leaders in product revenues in 2009 will be, in order, Healthcare, Philips Medical Systems, Siemens Medical Solutions, and SonoSite, the same order as in 2006.

The importance of the international market is highlighted by the fact that it still accounts for approximately 70% of the worldwide market. KBC estimates overall worldwide ultrasound product sales grew from $3.9 billion in 2005 to $4.1 billion in 2006, excluding upgrades and service revenues. This represents a 6.7% growth, which was helped slightly by favorable currency exchange rates. Worldwide ultrasound market leaders were, in order, GE Healthcare, Philips Medical Systems, Siemens Medical Solutions, and Toshiba (Tokyo, Japan).

Klein Biomedical Consultants (KBC) is a strategic marketing consulting firm specializing in the medical diagnostic imaging field.