An active but aging population is the leading cause for a steady increase in the orthosis market, Frost & Sullivan reveals in their study, “U.S. Orthopedic Braces and Supports Markets.” This forecast was based on interviews with competitors in the marketplace as well as various health care professionals including orthopedic surgeons, physical therapists, athletic trainers, orthotists and prosthetists, Charlie Whelan, senior industry analyst for Frost and Sullivan, said.
The study looked at both off-the-shelf and custom-made orthoses and supports and concentrated on several different segments including the fastest growing areas of knee and ankle orthoses.
Study results
Shifting demographics are changing all health care sectors. An aging population, technological advancements, policy initiatives and changes in the delivery and financing of health care are specifically driving the markets for orthoses and supports.
“The orthopedic brace and support industry as a whole is not a high growth market,” Whelan said. “It has grown 2% to 3% a year but it is a more than a billion dollar marketplace.”
Unlike other markets that consist of one or two different products that bring in billions of dollars each year, the orthosis and support market is varied and includes different types of products that all fall under the same umbrella.
“The marketplace that a lot of people are looking at is osteoarthritis knee braces which is an under-penetrated marketplace and has been growing by leaps and bounds in recent years,” Whelan told O&P Business News. “These are braces that are designed to avoid or delay knee replacement surgery. Relatively speaking it is one of the higher growth markets in the industry.”
One large issue for orthotic and prosthetic practitioners is the increase in use of off-the-shelf devices.
“I think O&P professionals are rightly concerned with the shift to off-the-shelf braces,” Whelan said.
This shift, along with the implementation of stock-and-bill programs, allows physicians to address their patients’ orthotic and support needs without referring them to an O&P professional to be fitted for a custom orthosis, Whelan explained.
What lies beyond 2012?
It is difficult to look beyond the next 5 years but Whelan can say that orthoses and supports are not going away.
“There are certain issues that are biomechanical in nature which require some kind of orthotic and prosthetic or brace or support,” he said.
Whelan said there are some key areas of the market to watch. The ankle marketplace is one of them taking into account recent enhancements to orthosis and support designs in an effort to more aggressively treat ankle injuries. Also, in the course of collecting data for the study, Whelan noted there was a lot of talk among industry competitors about prophylactic use of orthoses to be implemented as protection for otherwise healthy areas of the body.
The possibility of creating more specialized postoperative orthoses and supports for specific high-volume cases was another topic of conversation.
“For example, there have been a lot of surgical advances in the last decade or so with respect to shoulder surgery,” Whelan said. “Because physicians have learned to do some surgical procedures in a minimally invasive fashion, they do more of them and need more postoperative braces and supports.”
Cold therapy systems and infusion pumps for pain management are two specialized market sectors that are feeling the effects of this increase as well. Cold therapy in particular is growing and expected to continue on that path despite the fact that consumers are not usually reimbursed if they choose to use them.
For the study, Frost & Sullivan only focused on disposable, non-electronic infusion or pain pumps. Whelan noted a shift toward battery-powered versions of those devices which indicates that the marketplace for non-powered disposable pumps is going to be on the decline during the next couple of years as more of these products shift to battery operation. This course of treatment is gaining popularity as doctors and patients are eager to avoid the effects of systemic narcotics.
Market mergers
Consolidation of the marketplace has increased during the past few years.
“Depending on where you sit, that can be a good thing or a bad thing,” Whelan said. “From a good perspective, it means greater synergies.”
Combining the financial and technological assets of two or more successful companies has the potential to effect the consumer population greatly, he said.
“On the other side, these mergers may contribute to a more price driven marketplace,” Whelan said.
Another worry is that new innovation may decrease due to the lack of competition. Less competition in the marketplace could cause the motivation to innovate to drop drastically.
Whelan said the makeup of the orthosis and support marketplace is 80% low innovation product and 20% specialized, niche, high growth, high margin product.
Jennifer Hoydicz is a staff writer for O&P Business News.
For more information:
- To read the analysis, visit the Web site at www.medicaldevices.frost.com.
