Braces, glasses, hearing and mobility aids, orthopedic corsets and pacemakers are just some of the most used medical devices; however, they are enough to understand how much their presence determines the living standards of millions of people, who can peacefully live their everyday life, thank to these technologies. According to the Report on the expenditure recognized by health structures of the NHS on the purchase of medical devices in 2014, edited by the Ministry of Health, the United States are the world’s leaders in production and consumption, representing a total of 40% of the global market, followed by Europe, which holds 25%, Japan with 17%, and leaving about 15% to the rest of the world.
Last year, the US market amounted to over 125 billion dollars (Espicom, 2015), with an expected annual growth average rate of 6.1% until 2018. In Europe, the same market costs 5,67 billion Euros, increased by 9,1% compared with the year before, generating around 100 billion Euros of annual turnover and employing more than 575 thousand people (Eucomed, 2013). Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Spain represent 70% of the total turnover. These figures are increasing worldwide compared to 2013, therefore analysts estimate the sector growth rate is going to be 5% (CAGR) by 2020, reaching a total turnover of 514 billion dollars (EvaluateMedTech, 2014).