Nuclear Medicine Department Sentiment Improves on 2022 Procedure Volume Expectations
The 2022 Nuclear Medicine Market Outlook examines nuclear medicine procedure volumes, purchase plans, and buying criteria for future nuclear medicine purchases. Learn how NM administrators feel about their department’s future outlook and how they prioritize their goals in light of industry challenges.
The report explores nuclear medicine market trends, including NM procedure volume, installed base features, use of OEM vs. third-party service providers, equipment purchase plans, contrast utilization/budgets, NM power injectors, and site operations characteristics. Survey results are projected to the identified universe of NM facilities, and the report provides market forecast scenarios for NM scanners for 2022-2024.
What you’ll learn in this report
Nuclear medicine department priorities and future outlook
- What are the key department priorities for NM?
- What factors will impact the outlook for NM the most?
- What are the preferred info sources for future NM purchases?
- What are the top-ranked preferred uses of AI for NM?
Nuclear medicine procedures
- How has NM volume changed in 2021?
- What is the trend in NM procedure mix by procedure type?
NM scanner installed base and purchase plans
- How many fixed NM units are installed by site type?
- What is the trend in installed base market share by vendor?
- What is the adoption rate for key NM capabilities?
- What is the anticipated age of NM units upon replacement?
- What is the mix of new vs. refurbished NM scanners?
- What type of service providers are NM sites using?
- What is the brand loyalty of current NM users?
- What are the key buying criteria for future NM scanners?
- What is the unit forecast for NM scanners for 2022 to 2024?
Site operations characteristics
- How many technologists, nurses, administrators, imaging aides, and secretaries are employed in NM departments?
- What % of sites & procedures use outside reading services
Market Research Methodology
This report utilizes the results from a hosted online survey conducted in February/April 2022 with 338 NM administrators, supervisors, and chief technologists from a random sample of hospitals and imaging centers in the US.
Table of Contents
- Background and Objectives
- Nuclear Medicine Market Outlook Executive Summary
- Methodology
- Nuclear Medicine Department Priorities & Future Outlook
- COVID-19 Impact Now and the Future
- Nuclear Medicine Patient Study Volume
- Radiopharmaceuticals & Pharmacological Stress Agents
- Nuclear Medicine Camera Installed Base
- Nuclear Medicine Camera Purchase Plans & Replacement Cycle
- Demographics & Site Operations Characteristics
Executive Summary
2022 Nuclear Medicine department procedure volumes are expected to increase but reimbursement, revenue and net income are expected to stay the same, according to the 2022 Nuclear Medicine Market Outlook Report. Compared to the 2018 Nuclear Medicine Market Outlook Report, respondents are more optimistic about procedure volume and less pessimistic about revenue, reimbursement and net income, indicating an improvement in sentiment for centers utilizing Nuclear Medicine (NM) systems.
As of early 2022 COVID-19 continued to have an impact on NM operations, with 11% of respondents indicating it as having a “high impact” and 35% stating a “medium impact” in their facilities. The impact was primarily driven by requirements for technologists to wear PPE, cancellations or no-shows of appointments due to fear of exposure to COVID and/or stay at home guidelines and by declines in patient volumes.
Supply chain challenges associated with COVID-19 have resulted in 14% of sites that use radiopharmaceuticals indicating there have been changes in how they order NM radiopharmaceuticals. These changes include changes to order frequency and timing as well as reduced dosing.
Nuclear medicine departments continue to prioritize improving patient satisfaction with their NM experience and satisfying the needs of referring physicians according to the 2022 study. These priorities are closely followed by a focus on managing staffing levels to meet patient volume and scheduling needs, obtaining/maintaining Nuclear Medicine department accreditation and improving NM department workflow and productivity.
Currently, an estimated 25% of nuclear medicine sites perform radionuclide therapy procedures. This percentage increases to 45-65% of sites performing these procedures when only considering 200+ bed hospitals.
Most fixed NM cameras are currently installed in hospitals (57%) with 43% in non-hospital locations. Within non-hospital locations, 74% of the 43% non-hospital locations (32% of total) are physician office locations.
The installed base of fixed NM cameras increased slightly, by 2% to 14,860 units, compared to the 2018 study, driven primarily by an 11.9% increase in installations at non-hospital sites.
In 2022, a combined 41% of sites are “Yes” or “Maybe” planning to purchase NM cameras over the next three years. Indicating NM camera purchase intent is down from 53% of sites in 2018 and in line with 40% of sites in 2015.
The 2022 Nuclear Medicine Market Outlook Report explores market trends in U.S. hospitals and imaging centers, including procedure volume, manufacture-installed base features and share, the use of OEM vs. third-party service providers, purchase plans, brand loyalty and site operations characteristics.
The 2022 Nuclear Medicine Market Outlook Report was published in June 2022 and is based on responses from 338 radiology/Nuclear Medicine administrators who participated in the nationwide survey in February - April 2022. Their responses have been projected to the analyst's-identified universe of hospitals and imaging centers in the U.S. that use Nuclear Medicine systems to perform Nuclear Medicine imaging, and the report provides market forecast scenarios addressing the Nuclear Medicine unit market in the United States for 2021-2024. Vendors covered in this report include Siemens, GE, Philips, Canon, Digirad, Spectrum Dynamics and more.
Companies Mentioned (Partial List)
A selection of companies mentioned in this report includes, but is not limited to:
- Canon
- Digirad
- GE
- Philips
- Siemens
- Spectrum Dynamics
