The expanding customer base, coupled with the increased availability of affordable handheld scanners, is forecast to boost global sales of handheld ultrasound by over 50% in 2019.

However, the increasing use of ultrasound beyond the hospital comes with challenges. Firstly, there is limited reimbursement available in most countries, and even where it is available, office-based physicians typically do not have reporting processes in place to ensure exams are compliant with billing requirements. Moreover, credentialing, data security and quality assurance (both for image capture and interpretation) can be challenging. While handheld ultrasound devices may be ready for mainstream adoption, many institutions lack the IT infrastructure required to provide seamless patient care between office and hospital settings. These challenges must be properly addressed and overcome to ensure quality of care and for handheld ultrasound to realize its full potential.

Next wave: Primary care physicians
Primary care remains a largely untapped market for handheld ultrasound, and is potentially the largest opportunity, with more than 250,000 primary care physicians in the U.S. alone. To date, the use of handheld ultrasound in primary care has been mainly limited to rural areas, initially in developed countries and more recently in low- and middle-income countries. In the latter, handheld ultrasound is playing an essential role in expanding patient access to medical imaging, with cardiac screening, pregnancy screening and diagnosis of respiratory and abdominal complaints some of the main uses. Looking forward, we expect to see increasing uptake of handheld ultrasound in urban primary care, initially in developed markets such as the U.S., Japan and Western Europe.

The price of handheld scanners has come down considerably in the last couple of years and they are now a cost-effective option for many primary care physicians. For example, Butterfly Network began shipping its Butterfly iQ scanner toward the end of 2018 at the headline price of $1,999 (plus annual subscription of $420). In response, GE Healthcare cut the price of the basic version of Vscan Extend to $2,995 (currently U.S. only). While price is becoming less of an issue, many primary care physicians lack formal ultrasound training, and reimbursement is not widely available. In many European countries, general practitioners must be certified to receive reimbursement for performing ultrasound scans.

Ultrasound Homepage