There's No Place Like the Home Health Care Market

Article preview reprinted from Start-Up - February, 2009

Find out how the market for home health care products, valued at $4.3 billion today, is one of the largest and most stable medtech markets in the US, according to "US Markets for Home Health Care Products," a report recently published by the FDC-Windhover division of Elsevier Business Intelligence.

There's No Place Like the Home Health Care Market

Article preview reprinted from Start-Up - February, 2009

The market for home health care products, valued at $4.3 billion today, is one of the largest and most stable medtech markets in the US, and like most health care markets, it owes its growth to the burgeoning aging population. In the year 2010, the number of people age 65 and older in the US is expected to total more than 40.2 million, according to "US Markets for Home Health Care Products," a report recently published by the FDC-Windhover division of Elsevier Business Intelligence.

It's this growth that spawned the critical need for less expensive strategies and technologies used to care for patients sick enough to require chronic care, but healthy enough to live at home. The home market also serves younger, disabled patients who don't require hospitalization and those recovering from acute medical conditions who only need temporary or intermittent home-based medical care.

This population will only grow. As the larger elderly segment of the population ages, they'll require care. But rising health care costs have forced patients to recover from disease and injury at home rather than in an acute care or even rehabilitation setting. A dangerous shortage of facilities, nurses and other skilled health care personnel adds to the pressures and ensures strong growth in the home health care market for the foreseeable future.

The respiratory segment is the largest market in home health care, covering asthma, obstructive sleep apnea, chronic bronchitis, pneumonia, emphysema and cystic fibrosis. In the US, the home respiratory market was estimated at $1.5 billion in 2007, and is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 4% through 2012. As hospitals continue to look for ways to reduce their costs and better manage patients, new home health care respiratory therapy technology will offer clinically safe, long-term therapy alternatives.

Gaining access to the home respiratory market was part of the rationale behind the acquisition of Respironics Inc. by Royal Philips Electronics NV for $4.9 billion at the end of 2007. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in particular, is emerging as a hot growth segment, due to the enormous patient population: there are 12 million people with OSA in the US. As testament to the promise in this field, 2008 saw four acquisitions and two venture financings of sleep apnea companies. (See "Once Sluggish Sleep Apnea Gets Active," START-UP, January 2009

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Companies mentioned in this article:

Alere Medical Inc.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.

ConvaTec

Inverness Medical Innovations Inc.

Matria Healthcare Inc.

Kinetic Concepts Inc.

LifeCell Corp.

Royal Philips Electronics NV

Respironics Inc.

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