Montefiore Medical Center, a nationally recognized hospital in New York, announced plans in the fall of 2012 to begin construction on what's being called a "bedless hospital". Costing roughly $142 million, the state-of-the-art building will include an ambulatory surgery center with 12 operating rooms and four procedure rooms, an advanced imaging center, and an on-site laboratory services and pharmacy "that allows Montefiore to provide necessary treatments without the need for hospitalization," according to the official announcement.

While this may be a case of extreme outpatient care, it highlights the move toward minimally invasive surgery in health care — procedures that almost never include a hospital stay. But what's really behind something that doesn't require incisions and long recovery times for patients? Many would argue that it's advances in technology.

Despite the Affordable Care Act's 2.3 percent medical device tax that went into effect this year, industry analysts predict medical devices will be a hot commodity area going forward in 2013 and 2014 because of innovations that have the potential to change the standard of care in how patients are treated.
"I believe that on the part of larger medical device companies that are very profitable, I think to a great extent, they've already prepared for the tax," Paul Teitelbaum, managing director with Mesirow Financial's Investment Banking Practice, told DOTmed News. "They've laid people off, done restructuring and worked the supply chain to get costs down."

Medical device companies that could feel the squeeze, however, are the small and mid-sized ones. But this doesn't necessarily imply that innovation will be curtailed as many of these companies will be acquired by larger ones.

New technology, new indications

According to the latest report from Medtech Insight, interventional and surgical imaging will be supported by growth in less invasive and interventional procedures and the increasing availability of sophisticated informatics-loaded imaging tools, as well as the use of image-guided procedures for new indications.

Renal denervation, for example, is used to lower blood pressure through a catheter-based device by applying radiofrequency pulses to the renal arteries. The technology is available through several medical device companies, many of which have recently been acquired. Teitelbaum expects a few more acquisitions soon — an indication that this technology will continue to be a hot area in the next few years. U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval will also boost growth. Many of the devices have already received the European CE marking, but not FDA approval.

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