Publish Date : 17-Jun-2016
The spate of liberal radiology and public-private initiatives in the French medical imaging services market is starting to create a fertile environment for business model innovation. Several factors such as the reorganisation of regional health authorities, rising demand for value-added services, and high customisation of medical imaging solutions are chipping away at decision makers conventional purchase behaviour, which is rooted in conservative and risk-averse thinking.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Revitalized Dynamics in the Medical Imaging Services Market in France considers that the medical imaging solution bundles can integrate alongside new equipment purchases a vast array of value-adding services, from consulting to procurement and financing, as well as consumables and disposables. We are looking at a very high total addressable market (TAM) which Frost & Sullivan estimates at 640.0 million in 2015, states Frost & Sullivan Transformational Health Industry Principal Nadim Daher.
2015 was a watershed year for the French medical imaging services market. The countrys second-largest healthcare provider, the multi-hospital public institution Hospices Civils de Lyon, altered business dynamics by signing Frances first major managed equipment service (MES) contract to cover its entire imaging fleet. Although this contract remains an isolated case, it points to the growing appetite for novel, value-added services such as asset and fleet management in capital diagnostic and interventional imaging equipment as well as ultrasound and informatics.
Service providers biggest hurdle is to encourage the buyers to break away from their traditional purchase patterns and consider new types of fleet-wide and multi-vendor services, with a risk-sharing component said Mr. Daher. Whether on the private or public side, they could take a leaf out of the Lyon hospital network deal and develop new competitive tender structures from the ground up.
Medical imaging purchase decisions in France continue to be heavily influenced by the owning radiologists opinion of the clinical impact of the equipment, but they hold less sway over the operational and financial aspects. This creates a challenging and unique environment to develop and promote opportunities for new business models such as MES and multi-vendor services (MVS).
Proposing deeply customised solutions that balance the clinical, operational, financial, and research benefits of technology and service partnerships with vendors is the key to success in the French medical imaging services market. Service providers need to demonstrate the value of these solutions to a multi-disciplinary team and back them with solid case studies of similar implementations, ideally in France or else in neighbouring countries. In addition to adopting a consultative sales approach, offering risk-based contracting and transparency on pricing and purchasing best practices will also open many doors for vendors.
Another significant development with various implications for the market is the consolidation in the number of administrative regions in France from 22 to 13. In healthcare, the government is in the process of re-aligning health provision maps with the health management needs of each region, giving the medical imaging market additional reasons to introduce unique business models at the regional level. While this may result in higher mutualisation of access to the medical imaging infrastructure, it will open up fresh layers of opportunities for equipment and service vendors to deliver system-wide, region-wide and fleet-wide solutions.
2016 will be a year of many firsts for the medical imaging services market in France, noted Daher. Therefore, the time is ripe for equipment and service vendors vested in the French market to re-assess their local internal capabilities, deliver a distinct value proposition for long-term contracting and implement novel sales and marketing strategies.
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