Abstract
BVMed has issued an update to its previous guidelines on adoption of hydro-active dressings in the treatment of chronic open wounds. The guidelines entitled “Economic and Health Policy – The use of hydro-active wound dressings” deals with social insurance, nursing and economic aspects of use of these dressings in the treatment of a condition which affects more than 4 million Germans. A common theme on medlatest’s pages is the focus on short term cost rather than the adoption of a holistic approach to treatment regimes, which is also a discussion topic in this document. In fact the proposal is that there are many modern day dressing solutions to the problem of managing chronic open wounds, yet these are mostly not utilised because of cost constraint when the reality is that healthcare economic arguments often support their adoption. If you’re a German speaker, the document can be bought for a few euros here.
About BVMed and the German Market
BVMed is Germany’s Medical Technology Association, representing more than 230 industry and trade companies, among them 20 of the largest medical device manufacturers worldwide.
Germany is the third biggest market for medical technologies in the world with annual expenditure on medical devices and technologies amounting to approximately 25 billion Euros.
Germany is by far the largest market in Europe, being about twice as large as the French and three times as large as the British or Italian markets. The share of Statutory Health Insurance in the total expenditure amounted to some 14 billion Euros.
German MedTech Industry
The medical technology industry employs 95,000 people in nearly 1,250 companies (with more than 20 employees per company). In addition there are roughly 10,000 small businesses working in the sector with about 75,000 employees. The core industry thus employs some 170,000 people in Germany in more than 11,000 companies. Another 29,000 people work in the retail trade for medical and orthopedic products. Approximately 15 percent are employed in research and development, with a trend toward continued increase. Apart from a few large companies, the industry is strongly dominated by medium-sized firms. 95 percent of the companies employ fewer than 250 people.
Source: BVMed, medlatest staff
published: November 29, 2011 in: Economics, Healthcare, Techniques