Report: Labs Within a U.S. Physician's Office A 1.5 Billion-Dollar Market

NEW YORK, Jan. 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Physician offices in the United States generated a $1.5 billion market for IVD companies, an uptick from years past, according to Kalorama Information.  This will be of great interest to testmakers creating new point of care diagnostics.  The determination was made in Kalorama Information's latest 2014 edition of its physician office laboratory market study, Physician Office Laboratory Markets, 3rd Edition.

The report can be obtained at: http://www.kaloramainformation.com/Physician-Office-Laboratory-8339073/.

According to Kalorama, the United States is the world's leading POL market with approximately 120,000 in-office labs.  It represents roughly 60% of the global POL market and has demonstrated slightly above global average growth in recent years near 4%. 

"The United States is the center of the physician office lab trend," said Bruce Carlson, Publisher of Kalorama Information.  "Growth in the US is above world-average for POLs." 

The POL market encompasses a variety of institutions beyond physician practices, including specialty and multispecialty clinics; other primary care and urgent care clinics; and outpatient clinics not located or associated with a hospital (or hospital lab) or outpatient surgical services. In general, the POL market includes tests which are:

• physically performed in a physician office setting or lab located on the premises of the clinic or practice (not an associated hospital)
• performed at the time of a consultation with a physician or other healthcare professional (nurse practitioner, pharmacist)
• reportable to the patient are provide results to be used during the medical visit or same day as the visit
• used for screening, diagnosis or monitoring purposes
• not performed by anatomic pathologists or similar pathology practices that operate as physician practices or offices but provide histology, microscopy, and high complexity testing services as outreach (outside patients and samples) and with results not available during the visit or in conjunction with one visit

Kalorama's report said that tests used in physician office labs (POLs) are not specialized; they are generally clinical tools for disease screening, the diagnosis of common infectious diseases (e.g. strep, flu, mono, H. pylori, RSV), or routine monitoring tests for patients with common chronic diseases such as diabetes   Kalorama says this does not represent great change in the market. Similar to the CBC and dipstick urinalysis, clinical chemistry parameters assess organ health and non-specifically screen for health conditions.

As the greatest single national market for IVD and POCT products, the United States has long determined the development of the rapid test market. Many POL and POCT products are developed first for the U.S. market and eligibility under CLIA waivers before international distribution where other regulatory systems depend on FDA precedents are largely absent in terms of POCT QA/QC. While managed care systems' and the recent healthcare reform's (ACA) preoccupation with cost controls through preventative medicine are supportive of near-patient or decentralized testing, higher direct costs for the performance of individual decentralized tests will deter some potential POCT users and fail to draw support from consolidated payers with centralized testing resources.

Kalorama Information's Physician Office Laboratory Markets, 3rd Edition presents readers not only the leading opportunities for IVD sales growth in the POL channel, but is also a valuable resource for determining competitive positioning within the channel vis-à-vis its leading players. Find this report in addition to other industry leading research from Kalorama Information at: www.kaloramainformation.com.

About Kalorama Information
Kalorama Information, a division of MarketResearch.com, supplies the latest in independent medical market research in diagnostics, biotech, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and healthcare; as well as a full range of custom research services. We routinely assist the media with healthcare topics. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and our blog at www.kaloramainformation.com.

Contact:
Bruce Carlson
(212) 807-2622
[email protected]
www.KaloramaInformation.com

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SOURCE Kalorama Information