Analysis of the Current State of China's Medical Device Industry

       The number of medical device manufacturers in China has increased from hundreds at the beginning of the reform and opening up to nearly 15,343 in 2016; the total output value of the medical device industry has increased from negligible at the beginning of the reform and opening up to nearly 5,000 billion yuan in 2016. Today, China has become one of the world's major producers and consumers of medical devices.

Current Status of China's Medical Device Industry

      The number of medical device manufacturers in China has increased from hundreds at the beginning of the reform and opening up to nearly 15,343 in 2016; the total output value of the medical device industry has increased from negligible at the beginning of the reform and opening up to nearly 5,000 billion yuan in 2016. Today, China has become one of the world's major producers and consumers of medical devices.

      The number of medical device manufacturers in China has shown a year-on-year growth trend in the past decade. By the end of 2016, a total of 15,343 medical device manufacturers were registered in China, including 4,979 manufacturers of Class I products, 8,957 manufacturers of Class II products, and 2,366 manufacturers of Class III products.

      The distribution of medical device manufacturers in China is uneven, mainly concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Bohai Rim regions. Among them, the six provinces and cities of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Shanghai, and Beijing account for 58.5% of the national total.

      Medical devices refer to instruments, apparatus, implements, materials, or other articles, whether used alone or in combination, intended for use in human body, including any software needed. Medical equipment is the most basic element in medical, scientific research, teaching, institutions, and clinical disciplines, including professional medical equipment and household medical equipment.

Medical Devices

      Medical equipment is an important symbol of modernization, the most basic element in medical, scientific research, teaching and educational work, and the basic condition for continuously improving the level of medical science and technology. The development of clinical disciplines largely depends on the development of instruments, and even plays a decisive role. Therefore, medical equipment has become an important field of modern medicine.

      Hospitals cannot be powered off. Once a power failure occurs, it may threaten the lives of patients. Similarly, medical equipment cannot be powered off, so medical equipment has very strict requirements on power supply specifications. Therefore, the design of medical equipment batteries has special specifications.

      With the development of medical science and bioengineering technology, hospitals' demand for high-end medical equipment such as MRI, CT, PET, Gamma Knife and other high-tech imaging and radiotherapy equipment has surged; medical and health system reforms and national investment in the medical and health industry have also increased the demand for mid-to-high-end equipment in primary hospitals.

      80% of China's medical resources are concentrated in 20% of large cities. People go to large hospitals for medical treatment, leading to long waiting times for medical treatment and a shortage of hospital beds. Improving the Community medical network, enabling people to seek treatment in Community clinics for minor illnesses and hospitals for major illnesses is one of the main ways to solve the problem of difficulty and high cost of medical treatment in China. Major illnesses to hospitals and minor illnesses to Community clinics is a more reasonable way to allocate medical resources. Community medical institutions will become the main body of Community health services such as disease prevention and health care, basic medical care, health education, and disease control. China's Community medical services are still in their infancy.

      In 2009, Community health service centers and stations nationwide only accounted for 2.98% of the total number of health institutions, and their health professionals only accounted for 4.52% of the total number of health professionals. There is also considerable room for improvement in the HR situation of Community medical institutions. There is still a big gap between Community medical institutions and large hospitals in terms of objective conditions such as facilities and treatment level. Some Community medical institutions lack hardware, equipment is outdated, or even the external environment is poor, affecting residents' confidence in seeking medical treatment, and many Community medical institutions have single businesses, low technical level, and generally lack general practitioners and senior talents.

      At present, most Community medical institutions have relatively weak software and hardware facilities, and medical personnel have low incomes, leading to a lack of talent and a huge shortage of general practitioners; the lowered threshold for entry has resulted in doctors and nurses with lower professional levels becoming the main providers of medical and health services, leading to low service quality and an inability to meet the basic medical service needs of residents. This is a structural defect in Community medical services; in addition, Community service centers undertake multiple public health service tasks, including disease prevention and health care, planned immunization, health education, medical care, rehabilitation, and planned parenthood technical guidance, affecting the attendance rate of urban Community medical services. Publicly funded or medical insurance designated medical units are mostly comprehensive hospitals, and patients who enjoy publicly funded medical care and participate in medical insurance mostly choose comprehensive large hospitals, and most self-funded patients will choose to go to large hospitals, increasing the pressure on large hospitals and making Community medical institutions feel awkward. Choosing a hospital based on personal preference rather than disease condition leads to some serious patients not receiving the treatment they deserve, resulting in waste of limited medical resources.