The Future of Medical Equipment Purchasing: Predictions and Trends

It doesn’t come as a surprise to know the global medical equipment market is predicted to be boosted by more than 10% CAGR by 2027. What has led to this increase?

The start of many more medical institutions as the access to healthcare becomes more prevalent. Through the recent years, there’s also been a boom in spread of acute and chronic diseases.

However, hospitals smaller in size struggle to acquire equipments that are at high end. They still prefer branded equipments with lesser prices.

Then there are demands for bulk buying but not in excess, sustainable practices involved and so on. This is where the role of a medical group purchasing organization becomes more important.

With constant improvements occurring in fields of information and technology, the future predictions, and trends of supply procurement, however, will be revolutionized. Let’s first understand what the gaps in the market are before indulging in the drastic, efficient changes coming along for the future of healthcare.

Current Issues Prevalent in The Procurement Market

1. Decrease In the Inventory of Medical Equipment

The pandemic was an eye-opening experience for the whole medical world where the lack of supplies was an alarming cause. Increasing incidences of new diseases and ease of access to healthcare were some of the reasons that led to an increase in demand of medical equipment in Dubai, as well as globally.

The demand in turn leads to supply shortage, which not only puts a strain on the price of equipment, but employment of medical professionals as well.

2. Prices Of Medical Supplies Skyrocket to New Levels

The cost of medical supplies has been just pushing up as years pass by. The reason behind the same are factors such as surging prices of raw materials needed to make the equipments or consolidation of the industry.

There’s constant pressure on acquiring budget friendly deals especially when it comes to bulk buying. This creates a tiff in trying to save money, meet the needs of the healthcare facility while also source high quality products.

Upcoming Prediction and Trends for Medical Equipment Procurement

1. Turning More Towards GPO For Trust in Procurement

A way of navigating through the complex landscape of medical equipment procurement is to build partnerships and collaborations. Instead of approaching medical equipment suppliers, industry experts or other stakeholders, one of the best solutions in the future of medical will become interacting with GPOs.

These are organizations that leverage the collective buying power of all the present members to buy goods on discounted prices. Joining GPOs in the future of healthcare will give an advantage over the rest of the players in the market as without purchasing more, the value of equipments will be beneficial.

All the necessary negotiations and contracts will already be signed and procured. No one understands the novel innovations or the existing supplies as much as GPOs.

2. Increasing Use of Modern, Digital Technology for Purchase in The Future of Medical

Whether it is demand forecasting or understanding the equipment required, technology has been taking over many aspects of the medical world. With the rate of development and upgradation, it is quite likely that these technologies will be adapted into the future of healthcare.

This will lead to a much more efficient and authentic procurement process by medical group purchasing organization like BMGP.

At the moment, fields like data science are employed by GPO to analyze and consolidate useful information that further influence decisions. These will be enhanced with more advanced AI-powered systems and machine learning that’ll continue to streamline the process even more.

Trends can be mapped out from multiple sources, patterns noted that will then play on sourcing decisions. In the same way algorithms in the future will help optimize the use of resources in ideal ways.

Another example would be the use of blockchain technology such that elements of security and transparency are brought about. Clearly, digitization of procurement can make the whole process efficient and super cost-effective!

3. Encouragement Of Impactful Sustainable and Environmentally Friendly Practices

With many companies hopping on to the bandwagon of sustainability, it won’t be long before GPOs enter the game as well. Procurement practices will turn to green methods in the future of medical.

On one hand, healthcare organizations will emphasize on suppliers that don’t harm nature and take social responsibility. On the other hand, procurement companies would also have to believe in the same ideals and theories, to discover the right suppliers.

For instance, trying to seek those suppliers only that carry out eco-friendly processes. It could also be those who can show proof of having better track records when it comes to measuring carbon footprints.

The future of healthcare for medical equipment procurement seems laced with digitalization, optimization, and intelligent technology such as artificial intelligence. All of them will focus on reforming the process with efficiency and deftness.

Many responsibilities such as negotiating, purchasing will become automated. Professionals will carry out real time data tracking or analysis to eliminate chances of errors and make managing inventory details easy.

Even in the UAE, there will be a strong demand for adopting practices that produce medical supplies in the best sustainable ways. Recycling, reducing, and reusing will take precedence for not just manufacturers, but for those purchasing medical equipment in Dubai as well.

Lastly, methods like predictive analysis will help narrow down demand and inventory in the future. Thus, leading to less wastage and more savings.