The Global Critical Care Devices and How its Market has Been Affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic

The ICU is a comprehensive medical facility for the treatment of all patients. In order to ensure their vital organs survive, critical care patients need continuous treatment and support. Patients are typically attached to various appliances or devices in the ICU. The ICU provides patient monitoring, respiratory and cardiac assistance, pain control, emergency resuscitation systems, and other life support devices designed for the care of patients with a severe injury, vital or life risks, or performing large operations requiring 24-hour care and supervision. Around five million patients require administration in the ICU wards each year.

An ICU is designed and configured to support patients with a wide variety of conditions or to support specialized treatment for patients with severe conditions. The intensive care unit involves monitoring of patients, life support, and emergency response instruments and medical equipment. In keeping with the increasing need, critical care medicine continues to be an emerging service. The greatest challenge has been providing the intensivists additional skill sets with better facilities. The future shows promise for networking developments, and such developments should redefine the critical care unit's functional and operational limits.

The Importance of Critical Care Devices for Healthcare Industry

Critical care is one of the most technology-driven, data-rich hospital facilities. In this environment, high-fidelity data are critical in encouraging early diagnosis of decline in health and timely clinical decision-making. Scientists agree that innovative technology systems can enable healthcare professionals to anticipate for the day as they allow the centralization of their databases and medical records databases within each location by a network of hospitals. Effective treatment assists individuals with life-threatening diseases and accidents. Critical care devices may tackle concerns like surgical injuries, accidents, illnesses, and severe respiratory problems. Most critical people are recovering, but some do not make it. It is necessary to have pre-planned directives in place.

Which are the major Critical Care Devices?

There are many critical care devices available in the market for use. Some of them are classified as follows.

1. Patient monitoring equipment
2. Life support and emergency resuscitative equipment
3. Diagnostic equipment and other ICU equipment

Patient monitoring equipment includes acute care physiologic monitoring system, pulse oximeter, intracranial pressure monitor, and apnea monitor. Exhaustive patient monitoring systems to evaluate and view a set of parameters continuously through connected electrodes and sensors. Apnea surveillance can also be part of physiological monitoring capacity.

The heart's electrical activity by EKGs, pulse rate, blood pressure, body temperatures, cardiac rate, and oxygen and carbon dioxide amounts in the blood can include. An ICU physiological monitor is used to assess the body activities of each patient's bed. Breathing monitors continuously through electrodes or the patient's sensors. The intracranial pressure monitor warns of high pressure and patterns in pressure monitoring or show. Intracranial pressure control can be part of a physiological monitor capability. All screens are linked to the central station for nurses.

Intensive care equipment for life support and emergency resuscitation includes Ventilator, Infusion pump, Crash cart, and Intraaortic balloon pump. Monitors and alarms of the ventilator may communicate with the central information system. The intravenous or epidural fluid is provided by an infusion pump as epidurals. For immediate availability in cases of cardiorespiratory failure, crash carts are located strategically at the ICU. An intraaortic balloon pump is a tool that contributes to the workload of the heart and allows patients waiting for organ transplants to transfer blood to the coronary arteries.

The ICU also involves the use of certain diagnostic equipment. The battery-powered generator is used in the mobile X-ray units to power an X-ray tube. In blood analysis at the bedside, handheld, mobile medicine, or point-of-care analyzers are used. Teensy amount of blood is needed, and parameters of blood chemistry could be delivered much quicker than if samples were sent to the central laboratory.

Impact of COVID-19 on Critical Care Devices Industry

The COVID-19 has impacted the critical care devices market positively. The hospitals across the globe are proliferating their capacity to accommodate and treat critically ill COVID-19 patients. The speedy rise of the virus has changed things in a quick and abrupt way. However, the pandemic resulted in high numbers of death rates due to low immune systems. Due to the pandemic spread, there is a high demand for critical care devices to help the affected patients.

Conclusion

In times of crisis and rapidly changing global landscape, the utmost importance of health care systems can't be denied. COVID-19 provides a new challenge for the critical care devices industry. Yet, the industry has displayed a promising picture in recent studies. The emergence of improved and advanced technologies would undoubtedly have a beneficial impact on the approaches of healthcare by healthcare practitioners, and therefore cannot be overlooked. Such advantages need to be adjusted and incorporated in order to optimize their benefits.

About the Author(s)

Princy A. J

Princy holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the prestigious Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. University at Chennai, India. After a successful academic record, she pursued her passion for writing. A thorough professional and enthusiastic writer, she enjoys writing on various categories and advancements in the global industries. She plays an instrumental role in writing about current updates, news, blogs, and trends.