Overview of Medical Electronics In terms of the current regional structure of the global medical electronics market, the U.S., Europe and Japan are still the main market for medical electronics, but with the increasing sophistication of the medical electronics system in these regions and the continued expansion of the market size, its growth space and potential has been very limited, while some emerging regional markets, such as China, India and other representative of the Asia-Pacific region, the medical electronics market In recent years, has maintained a high growth rate, become an important region to drive the growth of the global market, but also the international large enterprises compete for new market targets.
The continuous expansion of the market scale, regional distribution of urban and rural differences, product brand concentration and other characteristics of China's medical electronics market as a whole is an important portrayal of the current situation of the Chinese market for medical electronics products itself is towards the portable, customized and minimally invasive direction of further development.
As of 2009, there were more than 10,000 medical electronics manufacturers in China, of which more than 800 were large-scale manufacturers, mainly concentrated in Shenzhen, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Beijing, and Jiangsu, etc. In 2009, China's sales of medical electronics increased by 18[%] from 2008 to nearly $4.7 billion, of which sales of portable medical electronics increased by 19[%] year-on-year. China's medical electronics sales grew 19[%] year-on-year to $2.738 billion. 2005-2009 total medical electronics sales in China grew at a compound annual growth rate of 15.9[%], with portable products growing at a compound annual growth rate of 23.5[%].
Driven by China's sustained and healthy economic development and the country's increasing emphasis on the construction of social health care system and other favorable factors, in the next few years, China's medical electronics market will continue to grow steadily, with a compound annual growth rate of 18.2 [%].
The key trends driving the medical electronics market forward are the aging of the global population, the increasing cost of healthcare, and the need to implement medical diagnostics and treatments remotely and in emerging regions or at home. Different world economies will continue to drive trends in these and other areas in the coming years. As a result, some of the major issues facing medical electronic device manufacturers today include portability and miniaturization, connectivity, security, data security and quality, and reliability.
Portability in Medical Electronics Ultrasound is a segment of the medical imaging field that has experienced a high level of innovation in the field of portable devices. The advanced portable or handheld ultrasound systems produced by today's manufacturers require highly integrated, scalable solutions that allow medical professionals to break out of the lab or office confines and connect to customers in remote locations or in emergencies around the globe.
Integration will continue to drive the trend toward portability and cost savings, and the field of ultrasound imaging is a good example. Embedded processors play a critical role in balancing the computing power, flexibility, battery life and system size of medical imaging devices while maximizing memory usage and energy savings. For example, today's high-performance DSPs have enough horsepower to perform background digital processing within an ultrasound system. At the same time, the programmability of DSPs allows them to implement the latest software algorithms without changing the system hardware. Thanks to the high degree of system integration of DSP SoCs, OEM development teams can not only improve system performance, but also shorten time-to-market. By combining DSP processing, general-purpose control, specialized peripherals, and optimal image and video compression, these SoCs offer a cost-effective, low-power, single-package solution. This allows developers to save board space and reduce design time, and enables them to focus more on developing specialty products.
In addition to the ongoing integration of embedded processing technologies that enable ultrasonic portability, it is critical to integrate the analog signal chain. At the analog receiving end of the signal chain, a single integrated analog front end (AFE) can replace discrete multi-channel LNAs, VCAs, PGAs, low-pass filters, and high-speed ADC functions to provide LVDS data output. By reducing the number of devices in the system, the integrated AFE can reduce power consumption by up to 20[%] and noise figure by 40[%] while saving 40[%] of board space. This results in significant system cost savings. The integrated AFE enables different levels of image performance and is suitable for all sizes of ultrasound systems from handheld to high-end devices. Connectivity in Medical Electronics Data integrity, system flexibility and mobility are critical factors for most patient monitoring systems. Through interfaces such as Ethernet and wireless, hospitals can connect all devices together throughout the organization, and even into the patient's home. The interfaces currently in use allow caregivers to connect remotely to patients via a network of wireless body sensors worn by the patient. This allows full use of the hospital's intranet or connection to the patient's home security system or cell phone. The system connects to an Ethernet or call center, allowing continuous monitoring without disturbing the patient. The CONtinua Health Alliance is said to be using Bluetooth technology, and other wireless interfaces such as ZigBee are also expected to be used in consumer medical devices and portable patient monitoring devices.
When choosing a wireless interface, power consumption, data rate and data range are three of the key factors to consider. ZigBee, for example, is a protocol that can be used globally; has moderate data rates and duty cycles; and supports wireless mesh networks, allowing multiple sensors in the same system. The Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocols offer limited range but higher data rates, and BLE has lower power consumption on the sensor side, allowing the use of batteries with smaller form factors relative to traditional Bluetooth.
Finally, the solution must be chosen to fit within the system's power budget and meet the data transfer requirements. Medical Electronic Data Security Medical data security is also another major requirement and concern. The U.S. Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 defines federal standards and supports a variety of technical security measures. These standards contain specific privacy and security guidelines. Such guidelines prohibit the transmission of data over open networks and the downloading of data on public **** computers, in addition to requiring data encryption and access control. These security measures apply globally, so expect to see more and more feature-rich hardware and software tools soon to support healthcare data security today and into the next decade. MEDICAL ELECTRONICS RELIABILITY The focus of medical device companies continues to change due to the increasingly stringent regulations and government quality requirements of organizations around the globe and in the current legal environment. Today, considerations of quality and reliability are important when designing semiconductor products for medical OEMs, and both are well known industry thresholds. By incorporating the Enhanced Product (EP) stream into the catalog process, not only is product life extended, but the change control process is clearly defined and improved. To meet the medical market's need for dedicated and controlled production lines, eliminate facility-to-facility variability and expand qualification practices, while improving product traceability or increasing the rigor of consumer electronics production testing. Enhanced product flow can also provide manufacturers with cost savings and reduced time-to-market by offering an alternative to upscreening, which is common in high-reliability markets. Another way to address these issues is to adopt portions of ISO 13485, a quality management standard that applies to all medical devices when applied to the semiconductor industry.