In December 2021, Getinge announced its plans to acquire 100% of the equity interest in US-based Talis Clinical LLC. Talis Clinical LLC provides high-acuity IT software platforms.
– Talis Clinical was founded in 2013 by Gary Colister (CEO) and Roger Hungerford (Chairman).
– Talis Clinical’s software applications include Critical Care, Cardiac Surgery/Perfusion, Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), Anaesthesia and Labour & Delivery.
– Getinge has a comprehensive portfolio spanning the hospital market with a strong presence in clinical devices sold to several high acuity care settings, including the ICU and Operating Room (OR). Getinge offers both devices and supporting IT solutions.
– The acquisition aims to support international expansion and enhance the digital offering from both companies targeting the growing demands from acute care markets.
The Signify View – Impact on the Clinical Care Market
Interest in the digital solutions utilized in the clinical care market has been increasing in recent years, often driven by healthcare reform highlighting the need for electronic health information. The pandemic has further expedited the development of the market, with the benefits of utilizing electronic health information to support improvements in patient care and scheduling. Several countries are transitioning toward value-based care systems with healthcare providers now being targeted to achieve specific measures with reimbursement affected if healthcare provision does not meet these targets. This is increasing demand for high-acuity IT solutions that advance patient care, by improving workflow and clinical efficiency. Interest in analytics and dashboards has also increased in recent years, to help enable physicians to make more informed decisions on patient care and subsequent pathways. This is opening opportunities for vendors to further expand existing solutions and add functionality. Clinical surveillance is also increasing to help reduce medical errors and to detect patient deterioration much sooner.
Signify Research assessed the high-acuity IT market in 2021 and analyzed the impact of the pandemic on demand for each of the core solutions. The report assessed the market development of many major players and the pandemic’s impact on market demand. The global market for high-acuity and perinatal IT solutions was estimated to be worth $1.6 billion in 2020. Signify projects that this will reach just under $2.1 billion by 2025.
The global market is led by a mixture of electronic health record (EHR) vendors such as Cerner and Epic and medical device manufacturers that offer supporting IT solutions such as Philips and GE Healthcare.
Getinge is a smaller player in the EMEA market with its Torin Management solution focused on the OR Manager IT market. It was estimated to have a 3% share of EMEA revenues in 2020. Talis Clinical LLC is a smaller player in the North American region with its cloud-based ACG platforms, including:
– ACG-Anesthesia is a secure cloud-based clinical application that supports clinical workflow, drives adherence with clinical operational practices, supports complex billing capture and creates compliant documentation.
– ACG-ECMO is an application that connects data, devices, and best practices to help ECMO teams deliver optimal patient outcomes.
– ACG-RemoteView ICU™ is a secure, cloud-based mobile web application that creates a “remote-view” to support on-premise or virtual-ICU care.
What next for Getinge and Talis Clinical LLC?
Getinge is a leading player in the respiratory care and anesthesia device markets, and a smaller player in the IT markets that support these solutions. The increasing demand for intelligent solutions to assist in clinical practice has driven Getinge to assess and enhance its offering to facilitate in the provision of informed patient care. The Talis Clinical offer will further support the Getinge offering enabling both companies to reach a larger customer base and expand into new markets. Talis Clinical LLC claims to improve clinical leverage by directing clinicians to the most pressing patient conditions relevant to their care team role. The company focuses on high-acuity care areas where advanced clinical and operational guidance can deliver improved clinical outcomes and resource management. Getinge’s device offering is also predominantly focused on the high-end segments in the most critical departments, enabling a core focus market for both companies on these high-end sectors. Although each company currently has a small share in the high-acuity IT market, the combination of both its own and Talis’ digital solutions will expand Getinge’s wider clinical device offering. This will enable Getinge to have more negotiating power in larger purchasing deals that focus on both devices and associated digital solutions, further assisting in improving its share in the clinical care market.
Will the acquisition trend continue in clinical care?
Interest in the clinical care market has heightened following on from the pandemic. In the last year, there have been several big acquisitions occurring across the device and associated IT markets, which has increased interest in the subsequent developments from these partnerships. Philips has made big plays in the market with the expansion of its connected offering through the acquisition of Capsule Technologies and Biotelemetry. Hill-Rom was acquired by Baxter Healthcare, also to further enhance its clinical offering beyond the infusion market. With similar motives to the Getinge deal, Nihon Kohden also acquired US-based Advanced Medical Predictive Devices, Diagnostics and Displays, Inc., to enhance its patient monitoring portfolio with analytics software. Most recently, ICU Medical confirmed its intention to acquire Smiths Medical from Smiths Group, further expanding its infusion offering and adding monitoring and respiratory solutions to its portfolio.
The need to ensure the quality of patient care is forefront with most healthcare providers, subsequently, the demand for solutions that enhance care provision is in the highest demand. A more comprehensive offering that can be obtained from a sole supplier is attractive to purchasers to not only enable smooth integration but also simplify processes and subsequent training. This will become even more important as healthcare resource becomes increasingly strained and more junior healthcare professionals enter the industry.
Although the pandemic has temporarily increased growth in several clinical markets, the longevity of market growth is expected to be limited by restricted healthcare budgets. As such, those companies that make strategic approaches to enhance their offering are expected to maintain share overall in the longer term.
Closing remarks
Competition in both the clinical device and associated IT solutions markets is expected to intensify in future years, with all vendors attempting to capture growth from the development of markets following on from the learnings of the pandemic. Strategic considerations will need to be made by all vendors to assess how they can maintain their piece of the pie. Product bundling on devices, IT solutions and consumables is expected to increase to help manage increasing healthcare costs. As such, the vendors with the most comprehensive offering are expected to succeed.
About Kelly Patrick
Kelly joined Signify Research in 2020 as a Principal Analyst. She brings with her 12 years’ experience covering a range of healthcare technology research at IHS Markit/Omdia. Kelly’s core focus has been on the clinical care space, including patient monitoring, respiratory care and infusion.
