It is no new concern that the price of medical devices and equipment has truly skyrocketed in the past few years. The reason for this is very complicated as there are multiple reasons. One possible reason actually is the fact that oil prices have risen sharply over the past few years. Well oil is the main way of getting gasoline and diesel which are the driving force behind the transportation of goods in our nation. When these oil prices go up then they have a direct impact on the cost of shipping products. Now this will have multiple affects on the actual scheme of the medical device market. The manufacturer that actually manufactures the medical device depends on sever suppliers in order to bring those different components together in order to create their product. Well each and every one of those components needs to be shipped with typical trucking and thus it again goes back to the price of the diesel at that time. If the price is high then the transportation cost will be high as well. Well this effect actually keeps trickling down and those suppliers have their own suppliers that need to ship them good and as such they cost will also go up. In return they have to increase their cost to the manufacturer and as such the manufacturer will increase his own cost as well. One of the products that actually has seen a sharp decline in the cost is a
pulse oximeter. A pulse
oximeter is a medical and health device that is very useful for individuals with varying respiratory and cardiac conditions. The device has actually gone through a complete evolution. In the early part of its history it was a very bulky and large product that was only found in hospitals. The reason that it was only found in hospitals is the fact that it was very large and not portable but also that it was very expensive. The hospitals and their high budgets for medical devices and equipment could only afford to buy these products. This in turn created a problem for those individuals who wanted to monitor their health and vital signs in the home setting. They first couldn’t afford it and also the product was not portable so they couldn’t take it wherever they wanted to go. Then they came sever technological advancements that truly changed the fact of the pulse oximeter market. There was no longer need for that large and bulky machine as the new chip technology allowed for significantly smaller chips that would allow to build smaller products. This meant portability but also these new chips were extremely cheaper than the previous chips and thus the overall price of the product fell. This was really good for those individuals that really needed the product in order to monitor their health from home but could not afford it. It allowed them the freedom to not only purchase one for themselves but to also be able to take it anywhere they desired to go.
