Sectors

A HIGHLY INNOVATIVE INDUSTRY

COCIR industries encompass a wide range of products and services covering the complete care cycle.

  •  In Europe, around 675,000 workers are employed in the healthcare sector. (source: European Commission)
  • Over 95% of medical companies are SMEs employing less than 250 people.  
  •  The global market for medical equipment is worth €110 billion (source: European Commission) with around €28 billion in Europe, and of this €20 billion for COCIR member companies.
  •  With an annual growth rate of 5% and investments in R&D representing up to 8% of sales volume, medical imaging and health ICTs are among the most innovative and dynamic industry sectors in Europe and globally.

COCIR is the European industry leading for the following 4 industry sectors:

1. MEDICAL IMAGING EQUIPMENT

Medical imaging is the discipline in charge of generating internal images of the body. The main objective of these images is to allow medical doctors to identify abnormalities in order to prevent, diagnose or follow up diseases or conditions present in the patient. Medical imaging equipment  requires significant capital investment in hardware and software technologies to produce the images.  

COCIR comprises more than 90% of the global industry players in medical imaging technology, which bring to market the different main product modalities, namely: 

  • X-ray
  • Computed Tomography (CT) scanners
  • Nuclear Medicine
  • Ultrasound (US)
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging(MRI) 

2.RADIATION THERAPY (RT)

Radiation Therapy (RT) has evolved to be one of the essential therapies for cancer treatment. It uses photons from X-rays to impact the tumors and destroy its genetic material avoiding its further growth. There are different ways to use RT for cancer treatment: 

  • Cure - In cases where the tumor is easily located and no metastasis has taken place, the use of RT can reduce the tumor and eliminate it from the body.  
  • Complement to surgery - After a tumor removal surgery is performed, the area is irradiated in in order to remove remaining malign tissue and lower the probability of recurrence. 
  • Support therapy for chemotherapy - RT is used to reduce the size of the tumor.
  • Palliative care - For several types of tumors that cannot be removed or eliminated, RT is used to reduce their size reliving the patient from the symptoms.   

Currently 50% of the cancer patients population reside in low and middle income countries, were only 30% of the RT unites are located. With this fact in mind increasing access to RT units in those countries is the actual challenge for the RT market. For more technical information about RT follow the Radiation Therapy tab in the web page

3.DIGITAL HEALTH SOLUTIONS

With the constant development of new technologies that impact our daily life, the health care sector has also gradually embraced the adoption of IT technologies to enhance healthcare delivery, access and quality of health services. COCIR is unique as it brings together telecom operators and healthcare IT companies. Digital Health is a wide and evolving concept that includes a broad range of products and services including:

  • Hospital information systems 
  • Electronic Medical Records and other specialty clinical information systems 
  • Integrated health information exchange networks 
  • Telemedicine and Mobile Health 
  •  Secondary-usage non-clinical systems (data analytics, public health, biomedical research)

4.ELECTROMEDICAL EQUIPMENT

Electromedical equipment include all of the electronic devices that are intended for medical use. They span from machines monitoring patient’s health in intensive care units, like vital signs monitors also used during surgery, to simple devices which monitor single variables like blood pressure devices or glucometers that can be used by the patient himself. There are also devices developed to help surgeons on interventions on the patient, like electro surgery knifes and anaesthesia machines, or infusion pumps that control the infusion of fluids into the body. 

Other kinds of electromedical equipment are used to develop therapies, like incubator for new born babies, or diagnostics like electro-cardiographers. All of the equipment use in medical imaging can be included in electromedical equipment, as they are devices used for diagnosis.