Global diagnostic imaging market shares of top medtech companies 2017 and 2024

Japanese company Hitachi accounted for three percent of the world's market for diagnostic imaging in 2017. By 2024, this share is expected to decrease to 2.7 percent. Diagnostic imaging allows medical examiners to observe the inside of a body to establish a medical condition. Different techniques and machines allow radiologists and other health professionals to take a picture of the structures and activities occurring in the body. The best-known types of diagnostic imaging are radiography (X-rays), ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), and magnet resonance imaging (MRI).

The global top 3 companies

The global diagnostic imaging market is dominated by three companies which are all expected to maintain a share of about 20 or more percent until 2024. These three companies are German Siemens (Healthineers), U.S.-based General Electric Healthcare, and Philips from the Netherlands. The total global diagnostic imaging market currently is estimated at around 40 billion U.S. dollars. One of the main drivers for the market is the growing demand for early stage diagnoses of chronic diseases of an increasingly aging population, especially in developed countries.

The importance of medical imaging

Today, medical diagnosis without diagnostic imaging is hardly imaginable. It makes it possible to take a detailed image of the human body and his structures, thus allowing an exact diagnosis and to choose the most appropriate treatment. Although most types of diagnostic imaging are painless, some require a patient to remain still for an extended period inside a machine, which causes problems for some patients i.e. claustrophobia. Other methods could involve exposure to some radiation or being anesthetized. The fact that there are, for example, annually 35-40 million MRI scans in the United States alone, shows the massive impact and importance of medical imaging in today’s health care.