Virginia lawmakers have decided not to move forward with legislation that would officially apologize for the state-sanctioned misuse of Black body parts over the past two centuries.
As far back as the 1800s, Old Dominion allowed medical professionals to conduct research on African-American bodies, living and dead, without their or their family’s permission. Some politicians were hoping in vain the state legislature would own up to exploitation.
However, on Friday, Feb. 17, the Rules subcommittee of Virginia’s House of Delegates voted 4-1 to lay SJ 274 on the table. This act, according to the Virginia Mercury, indefinitely killed the resolution.
RICHMOND, VA – FEBRUARY 3: Delegate Todd Gilbert, left, a Virginia republican representing the Shenandoah district, talks to fellow delegates on the House floor of the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia, Monday, February 3, 2014. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Four Republicans among the subcommittee’s five members, House Majority Leader Terry Kilgore, Speaker Todd Gilbert, Del. Barry Knight, and Del. Kathy Byron, shut it down.
Titled “Unethical use of Black bodies by medical institutions; acknowledging with profound regret,” the bill was introduced by Democratic Sen. Jennifer B. Boysko of Fairfax.
During her presentation of the bill, she said it was important to acknowledge the past wrongs perpetrated by the government in order to heal wounds created by those wrongdoings.
Gilbert, one of the Republicans who voted against the resolution, said during the meeting, “I feel like there are thousands upon thousands of equally painful and hurtful and regrettable stories that could be told about how we treated one another, how Black Americans were treated for a very long time in this country. And I just worry that there’s no end to these resolutions, and maybe that’s the intent, I don’t know.”
One example of this was when the Medical College of Virginia hired grave robbers to steal Black bodies for medical experimentation in the 1800s when they did not have cadavers available for research.
“But certainly,” he continued. “If it helps for me to acknowledge that fact, that there are these many, many hurtful, painful memories and events and actions that hurt so many people, you know, I’m doing that publicly right now.”
“I just don’t know in the way of legislation how we contribute to that healing by acknowledging one or two a year at a time. That’s my main concern,” he concluded.
After the bill was not affirmed, Boysko said, “I think it’s important that we address problems so we can move forward collaboratively. We know there are Black people who live in Virginia and around the country who are suspicious of health care because of what has happened in the past.”
Adding, “Our bill would have at least admitted that and given people a small peace of mind.”
Phillip Thompson, the former president of the Loudoun NAACP, believed the resolution would pass because it was supported by many in the senate already, unanimously being passed in that branch of government. However, the House of Delegates proved to be a barrier to the measure.
He said, “I thought it had a chance because it’s a very innocuous bill. We weren’t asking for reparations, nothing like that; we just wanted a real apology.”
Thompson also added that he believes it was so difficult to persuade African-Americans to get the COVID-19 vaccine because of the mistrust born out of the nation’s history of medical mistreatment, including The Tuskegee Experiment.
From 1932 to 1972, about 400 African-American men with syphilis participated in The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male by the United States Public Health Service
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the study initially involved 600 Black men (399 with syphilis, and 201 who did not have the disease). Participants were told they were being treated for “bad blood” but never had informed consent collected.
Despite being in the study, which looked at the sexually transmitted disease, anemia, and fatigue, the men were never offered penicillin to treat their syphilis. Instead, for research purposes, they were allowed to suffer.
“When the COVID vaccines first came out in my community, a lot of African-Americans didn’t want to take those vaccines because they thought that it was like the Tuskegee experiment,” Thompson explained. “Back in the ’30s and 40s, young kids were told don’t stray too far because the body snatchers will get you.”
Boysko explained in her bill presentation that this kind of warning was plausible.
She reminded the group that in April 1994, nine of the 53 bodies discovered in Richmond’s East Marshall Street Well dug up on Virginia Commonwealth University’s MCV Campus were discovered to be mostly from Black children. The human bones found at the well are believed to have been discarded in the 1800s by medical staff.
“Many of us still don’t trust the system, and when you look at history, that distrust is justified,” Thompson said.
In September, Virginia Commonwealth University formally apologized for its discarding of Black bodies after dissections. It also issued an apology to the family of Bruce Tucker, a Black Virginia laborer whose heart was removed after his condition was deemed too severe in 1968.
He sports a bushy white mustache and a bit of a gut. He dances to reggaeton in cities and towns across Mexico. He has 2 million followers on TikTok and at concerts is routinely passed into the arms of pop stars. His face even adorns a mountainside.
He is Dr. Simi, the cartoon mascot of Farmacias Similares, Mexico’s largest drugstore chain, with more than 8,500 locations across the country. His ubiquity speaks to the company’s round-the-clock marketing strategy but also something darker: the failure of the Mexican government to deliver on its promise of healthcare for all.
Medicines are often in short supply in public clinics, where it can take weeks to get an appointment with a primary care doctor.
At Farmacias Similares’ corporate headquarters, an employee sits at her desk adorned with Dr. Simi dolls and stickers.
(Luis Antonio Rojas / For The Times)
Farmacias Similares helps fill the gap with cheap generics and $2 doctor visits. The chain says its clinics next to each location provided 136 million appointments last year.
Many pharmacies feature an employee in a Dr. Simi padded bodysuit waving to passersby and engaging in antics such as challenging the cow mascot of Mexico’s Alpura milk brand to a dance-off.
Various Dr. Simis pose for a photo at an event in 2022 to celebrate the company reaching its target of 8,000 pharmacies.
(Farmacias Similares)
At the company’s headquarters in Mexico City, a mural shows Dr. Simi with a raised arm declaring: “To serve God and the people!”
Dozens of employees there answer calls to the “Simitel” hotline that provides free access to doctors, nutritionists and psychologists — and for those who press “1” to Dr. Simi himself.
Operators who have perfected the mascot’s cheerful nasal voice answer several hundred calls a day by reading a joke from a binder or simply offering a friendly ear. Alberto González, who has played Dr. Simi for nearly 17 years, cherishes callers such as 27-year-old Luis, who dialed in more than a decade ago to talk about his parents’ divorce and still phones every few weeks.
Alberto González, who takes on the role of Dr. Simi on the company’s hotline, waits for calls from people who want to chat with the mascot.
(Luis Antonio Rojas / For The Times)
The operators never break character.
“Hello, hello! How are you?” goes the script. “You’re talking to Dr. Simi. Who is calling me?”
::
In 1997, Mexico began requiring drugs to be labeled by their active ingredient rather than a name brand. The idea was to increase confidence in medications and open up the market to generic drugs.
The new rules were a business opportunity for Victor González Torres, whose family company had long manufactured drugs for the government health system.
That year, he founded Farmacias Similares. The name is a reference to generics, which were advertised with the slogan “The same, but cheaper.”
Promising “up to 75{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} in savings,” the company launched a marketing campaign that presented the chain as coming to the rescue of poor Mexicans and pushed back against transnational pharmaceutical companies that disparaged generics.
A mural depicting Victor González Torres, the founder of Farmacias Similares, at the company’s headquarters.
(Luis Antonio Rojas / For The Times)
González wanted a mascot with the right combination of goofiness and wisdom. After rejecting several ideas from an advertising company, his team found an artist who designed the winner: a simple black-and-white drawing of a doctor joyfully holding up his arms. The inspiration came from a famous movie character from the 1940s, Don Susanito Peñafiel y Somellera.
Dr. Simi first appeared in newspaper advertisements. He then took shape as an animated cartoon and a puppet on television, happily explaining why the public should trust generics.
An employee holds a sign advertising a sale outside the first Farmacias Similares pharmacy in Mexico City.
(Luis Antonio Rojas / For The Times)
Before long, Dr. Simis were dancing on the sidewalks. The company created a comic called “The adventures of Dr. Simi” and a band of “Simichicas,” well-known actresses and models who traveled with the founder and promoted new products such as the “Simicondom.” “SimiInsurance” offered medical treatment for a premium.
One of the chain’s key moves was to open clinics — which are operated by a sister company — alongside its pharmacies.
The cheap clinics made healthcare more accessible to the tens of millions of street vendors, taxi drivers and others working in the country’s informal sector. It was a population excluded from public health insurance systems — in apparent breach of the Mexican Constitution, which was modified in 1983 to make healthcare a universal right.
A doctor prepares an injection for Carmen Maldonado, a regular patient at his clinic next to a Farmacias Similares pharmacy.
(Luis Antonio Rojas / For The Times)
Like some political parties, the chain also handed out free rice and offered social assistance in poor neighborhoods.
Its populist strategy worked. By 2003, Farmacias Similares had roughly 1,000 locations and was looking abroad.
The government healthcare system expanded substantially the next year under a new program known as Seguro Popular that offered health insurance to workers in the informal economy. But that didn’t appear to stall the growth of Farmacias Similares. Catering to hourly workers who couldn’t afford to take time off to travel to public health centers, the chain placed its pharmacies on busy streets, often near bus stops, and grew rapidly by offering franchises.
By operating on a massive scale and manufacturing many of its own drugs, the company cut costs further and passed on the savings to customers.
“Victor González Torres and Farmacias Similares executed a tremendously effective strategy,” said Michael Chu, a Harvard business professor who has studied the chain.
González’s profile was growing too. Long encouraging people to call him Dr. Simi, he did not hide his desire for prestige, declaring once that he wanted to be remembered as a revolutionary like Che Guevara.
He butted heads with officials in the public health system after alleging corruption in its drug-purchasing practices and campaigned for president as a write-in candidate in the 2006 election.
“Poor people can have power in a country where there are so many,” he said in an interview at the time. “They can choose a president.”
The company has also waded through a fair share of controversy. González’s brother was the founder of Mexico’s Ecological Green Party, which in 2010 faced accusations of conflict of interest after sponsoring legislation to provide people with vouchers for medications in private pharmacies. The media dubbed it the “Simi law.”
The law failed to pass, but Farmacias Similares continue to grow amid the government’s faltering attempts to improve the public health system.
More than a quarter of the population lacked access to care in 2020, according to the government’s most recent estimate.
That same year, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador replaced Seguro Popular with a new program he promised would reduce corruption. But it has been beset by medicine shortages that experts attribute to bureaucracy and the COVID-19 pandemic. The government is currently transitioning to yet another program.
As a result, clinics next to private drugstores have been booming and are now thought to serve roughly a fifth of the population. Farmacias Similares opens nearly two new locations a day on average.
Carmen Maldonado, who owns a shop that sells artisanal honey and cheeses, recently dropped by Farmacias Similares’ first store — located in Mexico City’s Portales neighborhood — to buy cold medication and antibiotic injections, which a doctor administered at the clinic next door. A sign outside advertised birth control, oxygen and blood sugar readings, stitches and ear cleanings.
Maldonado could opt to use the public system, but the clinic is near her home and she’s been seeing this doctor for 20 years.
“He’s like the family doctor,” she said.
::
In November 2021, a 19-year-old high school student named Avril Christelle Vega Martinez was on her way to a concert in Mexico City when she stepped into a Farmacias Similares to pick up some hand sanitizer.
She had also been looking for a Dr. Simi doll, so she was happy to find the store had one left in stock. The dolls come in different guises — including boxer, mariachi and fireman — but the one she bought was the classic version: Dr. Simi in his lab coat.
A variety of Dr. Simi dolls fill the bookshelf of an employee at Farmacias Similares’ headquarters.
(Luis Antonio Rojas / For The Times)
Vega had taken the doll out of her backpack at the concert — Norwegian electro-pop singer Aurora Aksnes — when an idea popped into her head.
“I suddenly thought of the idea of maybe giving it as a present to Aurora,” she recalled. “Dr. Simi is a symbol of Mexican culture. We grew up seeing Dr. Simis dancing everywhere.”
And so she passed the doll up through the crowd until someone flung it onto the stage. Aurora picked up Dr. Simi and hugged him to her chest.
Captured on video, the incident went viral on social media, and it wasn’t long before Dr. Simi dolls were routinely being thrown onstage at concerts of pop stars including Dua Lipa and Rosalía.Joining in on the fun, a former chief justice of Mexico’s Supreme Court “ruled” on TikTok that doing so isn’t a crime.
The publicity was good news for Farmacias Similares. Dolls were selling so fast that the company boosted monthly production to 40,000 from 12,000. When one was left at a memorial for Queen Elizabeth II in Edinburgh last year, Mexican media outlets thought it newsworthy enough to cover.
The company carefully guards Dr. Simi’s image. The more than 1,000 staffers who wear Dr. Simi bodysuits are forbidden to speak to the public while in costume in order to preserve the character’s identity. One benefit of the job: lessons in dancing salsa, cumbia and the Simi pasito.
A communications team works a night shift to produce seven television shows a week, bringing in specialists to discuss anxiety and stress, as well as staffers from different areas to explain their jobs. Employees keep a close eye on social media, tracking down for an interview members of the public who have helped Dr. Simi go viral.
The company also promotes its brand through what VictorGonzález Herrera, the son of the founder, called “conscious capitalism” — funding natural disaster relief, tree planting and food assistance for the hungry.
In December, the company raffled 25 cars to customers to mark its 25th anniversary. Before the winners collected their new car keys, pharmacy employees launched into the corporate anthem:
We have the courage Dr. Simi has the heart What we offer We do with love
With pharmacies in all of Mexico’s 32 states and more than 400 in Chile, the company aims to reach its target of 10,000 pharmacies in the next five years and ultimately become the largest chain in the world.
“Simi has simply become necessary,” said Victor González Herrera, who recently took over as head of an umbrella group that includes the pharmacies and the clinics.
Health experts have warned that while the pharmacy clinics can treat immediate illness, they are not ideal for chronic conditions.
“Can it be a business that does good? Without a doubt,” said Dr. Andrés Castañeda, who coordinates health issues for Nosotrxs, a Mexican organization that promotes citizen participation in public policies. “But the health system can’t leave things 100{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} in the hands of clinics adjacent to pharmacies.”
One problem is that the care may not be consistent, because the doctors tend to come and go.
But Cori Hayden, an anthropologist at UC Berkeley who recently published a book on Farmacias Similares called “The Spectacular Generic,” said that many people have resigned themselves to “something is better than nothing” when the state fails to provide healthcare.
“It’s a force. It’s wild,” she said of the chain. “It’s totally wild.”
But its true power remains something of a mystery, because Farmacias Similares keeps its sales figures private.
“It’s a gray area,” said Jorge Perichart, director of the National Assn. of Sales Executives of the Pharmaceutical Industry. “We don’t know what we’re competing against.”
::
A family peers out from a home in the “Simi Neighborhood.”
(Luis Antonio Rojas / For The Times)
About 30 miles north of the center of Mexico City, in a mountainside community in the municipality of Ecatepec, the homes have bare concrete floors and tin roofs. Access to running water is a luxury.
For Farmacias Similares, the Lomas de San Carlos neighborhood was not just a symbol of neglect: It was a canvas.
Last year, the company sent in representatives offering residents food assistance and free house painting. Then painters got to work on 305 houses.
The result was an advertisement for Farmacias Similares visible from the nearby highway.
White houses make up a man’s bushy mustache, pink houses his tongue, and black-striped houses the three wiry hairs on each side of his head.
It was, of course, Dr. Simi.
Hundreds of houses in the municipality of Ecatepec have been painted to form a mega-mural of Dr. Simi.
(Luis Antonio Rojas / For The Times)
The company — which also remodeled the community center, built a vegetable garden and opened two new pharmacies nearby — dubbed Lomas de San Carlos “Simi Neighborhood.” Reporters rushed to cover the story.
“No one has ever paid this much attention to us,” said Hortencia Olivares Ramos, whose home was painted blue — the background of the mural.
At the mountain’s peak, Eva Ojeda López lives with her husband and four children in a house painted to match the hairs on Dr. Simi’s balding head.
The stay-at-home mother buys her hypertension pills at Farmacias Similares when the public pharmacies run out and frequents the company’s clinics for basic ailments such as colds.
Ojeda swore that the arugula from the new community garden lowered her cholesterol levels. One of her daughters read the book that Farmacias Similares gifted the family: the founder’s autobiography, “My Life Is a Struggle.”
Another daughter Johana, 18, joked about how some of her neighbors lived by Simi’s tongue or his eyes.
“We consider ourselves a part of Dr. Simi,” she said.
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s popular AI chatbot, has quickly become an integral part of several users’ lives. The free-to-use online tool has changed how we access internet-based content, thus revolutionizing popular trends, including fitness and nutrition.
In 2023, people are way more aware of their well-being and constantly strive towards maintaining a healthy life. More often than believing their instincts, internet users tirelessly explore the mysteries of weight loss and sustainable healthy diets. However, access to health and nutrition-related tips and tricks has seemingly become easier, thanks to ChatGPT.
With ChatGPT in place, enthusiasts can now access free on-point answers to all their health and fitness-related questions. All they have to do is type in their query and wait for the intelligent model to crawl through the most reliable websites to provide a complete solution.
How reliable is ChatGPT, and how has it affected the personalized fitness and nutrition industry?
ChatGPT is one of the most popular language processing tools due to its simple interface and arguably limitless use cases. It can produce natural language-based text and can be used to answer fact-based questions, automate tasks, generate suggestions, translate language, and more.
When it comes to fitness and nutrition, ChatGPT can not only tackle health-related questions but also provide personalized suggestions. For example, users can request OpenAI’s celebrated language model to generate a diet plan or workout schedule for a busy day. It can also generate plans based on a health condition or body state.
There are numerous human-operated fitness and nutrition-based services that offer customized plans to interested users, as well as close guidance to help achieve their goals. Such services, while helpful, usually run on subscriptions or memberships and cost a lot of money.
While the internet is always available at one’s disposal, it’s difficult to pinpoint the necessary pointers from an ocean of information, which is exactly where OpenAI comes to the rescue.
Numerous health-conscious people may want access to free, personalized nutrition and exercise recommendations they can follow from the comfort of their homes. All they have to do is type in their requirements for a tailored plan, and the language model will generate it within seconds, thus saving hours of research and extra effort.
How to ask ChatGPT for a meal plan?
Here are some examples of how users can get started:
Please give me a seven-day meal plan. I am X years old and need to lose/gain weight.
Please give me a seven-day non-vegetarian/vegetarian meal plan, but include/exclude eggs/beef/chicken/dairy/etc.
Please give a seven-day exercise plan. I am X years old and diabetic/other health conditions if any.
Simply make sure to state all the requirements in detail. If the generated results aren’t favorable, you can also ask the tool to regenerate the answers with the additional details mentioned. The more details you add, the better the answer you get, thus offering a “personalized” plan for your fitness or nutritional needs.
While it is definitely a convenient way to gather information, it’s also important to remember that ChatGPT isn’t always accurate with answers. Despite massive efforts to minimize AI-generated mistakes, users may notice false or invalid information while using the tool.
As a result, it is always recommended to consult a qualified healthcare professional if the person has a unique requirement. If you want to start exercising for the first time or have a health condition requiring medical intervention, depending on artificial intelligence may not be the best option for you.
Note that general or internet-based advice may not apply to some users. Also, verify the information that AI-based tools provide before imbibing them.
ChatGPT’s unbound access to numerous data points allows users to access some of the most efficient solutions to their problems within seconds. It is definitely prone to errors at times, but human beings aren’t immune to making mistakes, either.
Under proper supervision and factual verification, ChatGPT is definitely capable of revolutionizing the fitness and nutrition industry by saving users hours of precious time and their hard-earned money.
Note: We may receive a small commission from the links included in the article.
Pune, March 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — According to Market.us, the global medical devices market accounted for USD 492 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 656 billion by 2032, exhibiting a CAGR of 3.0{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} in the forecast period (2023-2032).
Medical devices are used to diagnose and treat diseases or injuries. These devices can be used to treat illnesses or improve patients’ quality of life. FDA (Food and Drug Administration) classifies medical devices into three classes: Class I, Class II, and Class III. Because they have the most regulatory controls, Class I and II require special labeling. These are the ones that sustain or support human life. These include an implant endosseous and an external defibrillator. Medical device establishments are those that manufacture medical devices. These devices include in-vitro diagnosis and diagnostic imaging devices.
By product, the In-Vitro Diagnostics segment (IVD) is expected to have the highest CAGR during the forecast period due to the increasing use of real-time diagnostic testing for diagnosing infectious and chronic diseases.
By end-user, the hospitals & clinics segment dominated the market in 2022 because of the rising healthcare spending, better healthcare infrastructure, and an attractive reimbursement policy.
In 2022, North America dominated the market with the highest revenue share of 43{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} due to the high treatment rates, supportive government initiatives for early diagnosis of diseases, and the increasing adoption of technologically advanced devices.
Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at the highest CAGR between 2023-2032 due to the increasing patient population suffering from chronic diseases and improving healthcare infrastructure.
Complex surgeries and growing numbers are driving this market. In addition, the market for medical devices is expected to grow due to technological advancements in medical technology, brain monitoring devices, and government initiatives.
Factors affecting the growth of the medical devices industry?
Several factors can affect the growth of the medical devices industry. Some of these factors include:
Technological Advancements: Advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and wearable medical equipment are becoming increasingly prevalent in the medical devices market nowadays. This is propelling the market growth positively.
Rising chronic diseases: The increasing cases of chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, etc., will raise the patient population. A sedentary lifestyle is a major reason behind this. This is boosting the market’s expansion.
Increasing healthcare expenditure: The increasing per capita healthcare expenditure in developing and developed countries means more opportunities for medical devices, which is positively affecting market growth.
Growing awareness about diseases: The growing awareness about infectious diseases and chronic conditions means that individuals are taking necessary treatments readily. This is abetting the market growth positively.
Remote diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of patients are possible now because of technologies like remote patient monitoring devices, artificial Intelligence (AI), wearable devices, and electronic health records. Patients can be monitored at their homes and hospitals via contactless technology. This is crucial in controlling COVID-19. Both patients and doctors can have an EHR for their patients. This means they don’t need to deal with traditional paperwork that must be sent through multiple people involved in the treatment. Patients and doctors can view the data on their own devices as well as those of other doctors.
Medical device manufacturers are seeking ways to reuse production lines to produce high-demand supplies to fight against the coronavirus. These products include hand soaps, ventilators, personal protective equipment (PPE), face masks, and other medical supplies. AirCo, a liquor producer, has shifted its focus to hand sanitizers. INKSmith Canada also produces face shields. It was a startup that made technology tools and designs more accessible for children.
Due to rising rates of chronic medical conditions and the treatment of those suffering from them, the healthcare system across different countries is facing immense pressure. This has led to a significant rise in the cost of treating these conditions. Hospital inpatient costs are significantly higher than the hospital charges for those treated at home. Additionally, longer hospital stays can result in a higher economic burden. A recent randomized study comparing hospital patients with those in home care showed that home care management costs decreased by 19{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f}. There has been an increase in the preference for home healthcare services due to increasing economic burdens and a growing elderly population. Home healthcare services are becoming more popular in developed countries due to the increasing efforts of key players and healthcare agencies to develop and launch simple-to-use medical devices, such as portable and wearable devices for chronic illnesses. Shimmer Research, a world leader in wearable technology applications, introduced Verisense Pulse+ in March 2021. This sensor is designed for Verisense platforms and provides photoplethysmographs and galvanic skin reactions. This device measures the heart rate and oxygen saturation of clinical trial patients and their activity levels and sleep levels.
Market Growth
Living a lifestyle that leads to physical inactivity can increase the risk of developing heart disease. This will likely increase the demand for medical devices as more heart surgeries are performed to clear blocked arteries. This will help to boost the market growth. This market is expanding because companies focus on creating advanced products and using different business strategies, such as acquisitions or partnerships, to maintain their market position.
Regional Analysis
Regional analysis shows that North America is expected to continue to be the largest market in medical devices. This market dominance is due to the rising prevalence of chronic disease, high healthcare spending, and key players’ presence. Canada’s growing elderly population will likely boost market growth during the forecast period. According to United Nations Population Fund statistics for 2022, Canada has a large population aged between 15 and 64. This group makes up approximately 65{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} of Canada’s total population. According to the same source, 19{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} of Canadians are expected to reach 65 by 2022. Geriatrics are more susceptible to developing chronic conditions such as respiratory disease, cardiopulmonary disease, and orthopedic disorders. This trend over the forecast period is anticipated drive market growth. A rising number of chronic conditions such as stroke, heart disease, and cardiovascular disease has increased cardiopulmonary bypass procedures; therefore, medical devices have seen a significant increase in demand. According to American Heart Association, the United States is predicted to have a 6.8{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} heart disease prevalence by 2021, 1.8{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} higher than the overall population. This will help to increase demand for medical devices that improves diagnosis and treatment. This will likely boost the market’s growth over the forecast period.
Competitive Landscape
The global medical devices market is fragmented because of the presence of many market players on both a regional and global level. With its extensive product range and international reputation, Medtronic holds the largest market share. Most industry players invest heavily in Research and Development (R&D), which is used to develop new products and improve existing product lines. They also invest a lot in growing their global distributor networks, allowing businesses to diversify product offerings.
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Sedentary lifestyles and other factors increase chronic diseases like diabetes, cancer, and other infections. Through various awareness programs, healthcare agencies worldwide are trying to improve the speed of diagnosis and treatment. Due to the increasing prevalence of these conditions, the number of people who need diagnostic tests and procedures is on the rise. For example, the International Diabetes Federation stated that 537 million people were diagnosed with diabetes in 2021. IDF states this number will rise to 643 million in 2030 and 783 million by 2045.
According to the American Cancer Society, the number of new cancer cases in 2021 was 1.9 million. In addition, there is a rising demand for orthotic or ophthalmic procedures due to increasing numbers of joint fractures and poor vision in the elderly. Osteoarthritis Alliance 2021 data shows that the incidence of knee osteoarthritis is highest in those between 45 and 65 years old. About 45{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} of osteoarthritis patients are 65 years old or older. Along with these factors, higher per capita healthcare spending in developing and emerging countries and better reimbursement policies drive an increasing number of patients seeking treatment and diagnosis. This is driving demand for medical devices.
Due to rising rates of chronic medical conditions and the treatment of those suffering from them, the healthcare system across different countries is facing immense pressure. This has led to a significant rise in the cost of treating these conditions. Hospital inpatient costs are significantly higher than the hospital charges for those treated at home. Additionally, longer hospital stays can result in a higher economic burden Shimmer Research, a world leader in wearable technology applications, introduced Verisense Pulse+ in March 2021. This sensor is designed for Verisense platforms and provides photoplethysmographs and galvanic skin reactions. It also has an inertial measurement unit. This device measures the heart rate and oxygen saturation of clinical trial patients. It can also measure their activity levels and sleep levels.
Market Restraints
Most likely, new products and services will be more expensive due to regulatory changes. Data protection is affected by these regulatory changes. These regulatory changes can also affect equipment approval procedures. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has requested additional clinical information. This information is needed to support safety claims and efficacy claims regarding medical devices such as endoscopies. Due to the potential loss of revenue due to delayed product releases and the higher costs associated with the stringent approval process, investments in product development have been under pressure. This can have a negative effect on the growth of medical device and equipment markets.
Market Opportunities
The largest medical device market segmented by type is In-vitro Diagnostics. Hospitals and clinics will benefit the most from the segmented market for medical devices by the end user. With US$ 55,700 million, the USA is anticipated to be the world’s largest medical device market. According to the Business Research Company, medical device companies should concentrate on disposable medical products, contactless medical devices, portable medical devices, and wearable medical gadgets.
A recent randomized study comparing hospital patients with those in home care showed that home care management costs decreased by 19{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f}. There has been an increase in the preference for home healthcare services due to increasing economic burdens and a growing elderly population. In addition, home healthcare services are becoming more popular in developed countries due to the increasing efforts of key players and healthcare agencies to develop and launch simple-to-use medical devices, such as portable and wearable devices for chronic illnesses. These factors are creating ample amount of opportunities for the market.
In-Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) is expected to experience a higher CAGR. This is due to the increasing usage of real-time diagnostic tests to accurately diagnose chronic or infectious diseases such as diabetes, cancer, HIV/AIDS, etc. In addition, the increased demand for medical devices, such as gloves and masks, surgical lights, and fetal monitors, led to the other segments holding a dominant position in 2022. The wound management segment is expected to grow significantly due to the increased investment made by medical device companies into new wound devices and bioactive therapies. Minimally Invasive Surgery is predicted to grow because of technological advancements in surgical robots and increased use by healthcare providers. Due to the increasing number of patients suffering from different cardiac and orthopedic conditions, orthopedic and cardiovascular devices will likely continue growing rapidly. Market growth for medical devices is anticipated to be driven by the increasing incidence of diabetes and retinal disorders in the population.
End-User Insight
This segment’s notable growth can be attributed primarily to rising healthcare spending, improved healthcare infrastructure, and a favorable reimbursement policy. According to the WHO report on healthcare infrastructure, most developing countries have less than 1 million hospital beds. These countries invest heavily in healthcare infrastructure development. As a result, healthcare infrastructure spending is expected to increase over the forecast period.
FDA granted Abbott’s recall of its imaging catheter a Class 1 label in May 2022 because of vascular injury risks.
In January 2022, The US gave FDA approval to Mediatric’s Intellis rechargeable neurostimulator and Vanta recharge-free neurostimulator used for treating chronic pain caused by diabetic peripheral neuropathy.
Siemens Healthineers AG launched NAEOTOM Alpha in November 2021, which is the world’s first CT scanner that uses photon-counting technology cleared for clinical use in Europe and the US.
In August 2021, Johnson & Johnson introduced VELYS digital surgery. The robot-assisted option for total knee arthroplasty in the United States is now available.
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In their study, researchers followed 13,720 women for 20 years to analyze their risk of developing dementia. They examined Medicare claims at the end of the study to determine who received a diagnosis.
The women received a score for seven health factors, with 0 corresponding to “poor” and 7 as “excellent.” The average score at the beginning of the study was 4.3. At the 10-year follow-up, it was 4.2.
At the 20-year follow-up, 1,771 women had been diagnosed with dementia.
After adjusting for factors such as age and education, the researchers found that for every increase of one point in overall score, the participant’s risk of dementia decreased by 6{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f}.
One limitation of the study is that researchers did not receive information that allowed them to see how changes in healthy habits, such as quitting smoking, influenced the risk of dementia.
The findings also have not been published yet in a peer-reviewed journal.
The researchers used the American Heart Association’s “Life’s Simple 7” lifestyle habits for their study.
Those seven factors are:
“The good news is, this isn’t an all-or-nothing situation,” said Dr. Joel Salinas, a behavioral neurologist and researcher at NYU Langone Health and chief medical officer at Isaac Health in New York.
“You don’t need to be the healthiest person. Even if people have a good score in one or two areas, they are receiving some benefit. Any improvements incrementally improve your long-term health,” he told Healthline.
“If you change your habits, you will receive some health benefits. The earlier you make those changes,” Salinas added. “The longer you keep the new habits, the better. The intent is to find an easy way to keep track of your health.”
“Dementia is an overall decline in cognitive ability, usually impacting short-term memory (learning/recall new information) and another cognitive ability (or more), such as decline in executive skills (organization, decision making) or language, or visual-spatial skills,” says Karen Miller PhD, a neuropsychologist and geropsychologist as well as the senior director of the Brain Wellness and Lifestyle Programs at Pacific Neuroscience Institute in California.
“In dementia, these declines typically impact one’s ability to be completely independent (i.e., the person may have difficulty managing finances or medications, difficulty/impairment in driving, etc.),” she told Healthline.
Women make up about two-thirds of people with dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, according to a 2021 report.
One reason is that women live longer than men and dementia typically appears after age 80. Other possible explanations, according to Cognitive Vitality, a program of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, include:
Higher education is associated with lower rates of dementia. Many older women today were not afforded the same educational opportunities as men.
Dementia is linked to depression, and more women have depression than men
People who exercise are less likely to develop dementia and women exercise less than men
When women develop dementia, they decline faster than men do. Therefore, they can have a more severe illness.
Dementia occurs when neurons in the brain stop working or interacting with other brain cells, according to the National Institute of Aging.
Everyone loses some neurons as they age, but people with dementia have a more significant loss.
While many people over 85 have dementia, it is not considered a normal part of aging.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, but it is not the only one.
A few other types of dementia include the following:
Some people can have a combination of two or more types of dementia.
Signs and symptoms of dementia include:
Experiencing memory loss, poor judgment, and confusion.
Difficulty speaking, understanding, and expressing thoughts, or reading and writing.
Wandering and getting lost in a familiar neighborhood.
Trouble handling money responsibly and paying bills.
Repeating questions.
Using unusual words to refer to everyday objects.
Taking longer to complete routine daily tasks.
Losing interest in normal daily activities or events.
Hallucinating or experiencing delusions or paranoia.
Acting impulsively.
Losing balance and problems with movement
It is important to note when symptoms are worsening, experts say.
“When people start noticing these symptoms, in themselves or a loved one, it may be time to see a doctor. The same is true for new changes, new symptoms, or a worsening of previous symptoms. There are some treatments – that can’t cure or reverse the damage. Still, they can possibly slow the progression of the disease, such as aducanumab and lecanemab,” Salinas said. “New treatments are another reason to see a doctor.”
Long partial to heavy lunchtime platters of meat and rice, Asim al-Shammari has recently turned to lighter fare from a self-described diet restaurant, swayed by Saudi Arabia’s anti-obesity push.
Roughly one in five Saudi adults is obese, according to an in-depth study published by the World Bank last year that described the problem as “alarming”.
The Global Obesity Observatory places the kingdom at number 17 in its international rankings of obesity prevalence, three slots below the United States and near neighbours Qatar and Kuwait.
But the Vision 2030 reform agenda spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman includes goals for bringing down both obesity and diabetes by the decade’s end.
The effort is being helped by a raft of new restaurants offering healthier alternatives to some traditional Saudi fare, including the spot where al-Shammari, a financial analyst, tucked into a plate of chicken, rice and carrots one recent afternoon.
“I used to eat burgers, shawarma or kabsa while I was at work,” said the 28-year-old, referring to a rice dish usually served on large shared plates.
“This increased obesity, especially with eight-hour office work and lack of movement.”
Lifestyle changes
For decades, Saudis have spent much of their free time in restaurants and shopping malls, and food was a chief source of entertainment in the kingdom, where high temperatures limit outdoor activities for much of the year.
In 2019, the health ministry started requiring restaurants to include calorie information on menus to encourage healthy eating.
Fast food options – from international favourites like McDonald’s to local chains like Al Baik – remain ubiquitous in the kingdom’s main cities, but they are starting to face more varied competition.
Saad al-Hader, a 25-year-old doctor, said he used to bring meals from home so he could eat something besides junk food, but the proliferation of new health-conscious eateries has made his life easier.
“The popularity of these restaurants and the fact that they are close to workplaces, makes it easier to stick to healthy eating,” he told AFP as he dined on salmon and grilled potatoes.
A growing number of restaurants are offering meal plans that send salads and other healthy meals to clients’ homes and workplaces.
One such plan provides a meal a day for a month for 450 Saudi riyals ($120).
Basil Chehayeb, a Lebanese national who runs a restaurant called Reshape in the Saudi capital Riyadh, said he had opened two new branches in the past 18 months to keep up with demand.
The restaurant provides meals each day to about 500 subscribers, most of whom are Saudis.
“Saudis have changed their lifestyle and are now attending sports clubs and eating healthy foods,” he said.
Targeting the youth
Efforts by restaurants and other private sector businesses to promote healthy eating have been supplemented by other health-minded interventions.
The Saudi Sports for All Federation now organises regular events like the Riyadh Marathon, which this year drew thousands of runners to the streets of Riyadh.
Officials have also begun work on a 135-kilometre (85-mile) Sports Boulevard in the capital featuring foot, cycle and horse-riding paths.
Beginning with the current academic year, the Saudi health ministry has banned the sale of soft drinks in schools.
The message seems to be getting through, at least among young people, said public health consultant Lamia al-Brahim.
“Obesity is a serious health problem” but “it is very noticeable now that health awareness is increasing among the young generation,” she said.
“Societal behaviour changes need a long time, and these efforts start from within the home, then the school and then the government agencies.”
