The Future of (Digital) Surgery

Conclusion At first glance, the future prospects for the hospital industry’s surgery business look promising. Profit margins for most procedure lines remain solid, and an aging population will fuel growth in a broad array of surgical interventions. However, demographic trends are not the sole driver of surgery volumes—technological and competitive forces will also exert a significant influence on the future course of surgery. On the technology front, advances in biomedical engineering will create new surgical interventions while rendering existing surgical procedures obsolete. Technological innovations will also redefine how surgery is performed. Patient demand for less invasive procedures has already spurred the development of new techniques such as single-incision laparoscopy and natural orifice-based endoscopic surgery. In addition to minimizing the invasiveness of surgery, surgeons will demand more advanced imaging modalities to improve the precision of their operations. Competition is likely to intensify in key service lines. In particular, as the inpatient-to-outpatient migration of surgery continues at a gradual pace in the coming years, freestanding surgery providers will target short-stay inpatient procedures in orthopedics, bariatrics, and other lucrative procedural areas. Even as hospitals prepare to defend their profitable inpatient surgery base from new competitors, the looming shortage of surgeons could pose a daunting challen...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Digital Health Source Type: news