Medical & Imaging Labs

Industry Profile Report

Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters

Industry Overview Current Conditions, Industry Structure, How Firms Operate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.

Call Preparation Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.

Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.

Industry Profile Excerpts

Industry Overview

The 7,500 medical and imaging labs in the US perform analytical and diagnostic services for patients and health care providers. Medical labs provide a variety of testing services, including routine clinical, anatomic pathology, genetic, and esoteric tests. Other types of testing include drug use, risk assessment for life insurance, and dental. Imaging labs provide diagnostic procedures, including x-rays; MRI, CT and PET scans; ultrasound; mammography; nuclear medicine; and fluoroscopy.

Competition from Health Care Providers and Academia

Medical and imaging labs compete with hospitals, clinics, physicians, and universities for services.

Complying With Government Regulation

Medical and imaging labs must be licensed and must adhere to federal and state government regulations which establish technical, operational, personnel and quality requirements.

Industry size & Structure

The average medical and imaging lab employs 37 workers and generates $7-8 million in annual revenue.

    • A typical medical lab operates out of single location, employs 63 workers, and generates about $11 million annually.
    • A typical imaging lab operates out of a single location, employs about 17 workers, and generates about $4.5 million annually.
    • The medical lab industry consists of about 3,300 companies, employs 206,800 workers, and generates about $36 billion annually.
    • The imaging lab industry consists of about 4,200 companies, employs about 72,200 workers, and generates about $19 billion annually.
    • Large medical labs include Laboratory Corporation of America, Quest Diagnostics, and Sonic Healthcare. Large imaging labs include RadNet, Imaging Healthcare Specialists, and Intrinsic Imaging.
                                  Industry Forecast
                                  Medical & Imaging Labs Industry Growth
                                  Source: Vertical IQ and Inforum

                                  Recent Developments

                                  Mar 7, 2023 - New National Cybersecurity Strategy may Impact Industry
                                  • The Biden administration's new National Cybersecurity Strategy could impact how healthcare organizations and their business associates address complex cybersecurity challenges, according to Health IT Security. "Regulatory requirements will increase, likely with enhanced focus on third party risk management," Mike Hamilton, CISO of Critical Insight, told Health IT Security. "Because of the increasing trend to compromise healthcare entities through business associates, assessing and monitoring third-party security controls will be an additional regulatory task.” Hamilton added that the initiative to work with vendors to ensure the security of IoT devices – including medical IoT – may reduce the burden of securing products post-implementation. Hamilton noted the strategy document provisions that aim to limit what personally identifiable information can be collected and transferred by data stewards. One of the document’s strategic objectives, titled “Hold the Stewards of Our Data Accountable,” specifically aims to protect vulnerable populations from the risks of data misuse.
                                  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported in late January that flu cases are declining nationwide. Demand for tests may decrease as a result. The CDCs national severity map showed 27 states to be at “low” or “minimal” case levels in late January. The winter Covid-19 wave appears to have peaked earlier in January, with hospitalizations and deaths down 25% and 1% respectively by late January. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) launched this cold-and-flu season, with hospitalizations peaking in mid-November 2022 at twice the levels seen in the most recent pre-pandemic RSV season, before dropping off. RSV made so many young children ill during the fall of 2022 that weekly pediatric hospitalizations were the highest recorded. Influenza, which normally peaks in February, boosted hospitalization rates to the highest level for that time of year in over a decade.
                                  • Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is increasing in the US. Doctors only recently began testing for RSV in adults, but medical laboratories will benefit as testing increases. Most older children and adults are exposed to RSV multiple times in their lifetimes, and the immunity they gain prevents severe illness, if not infection. Testing adults for RSV has led to the realization that in some years, RSV infections can rival those caused by influenza.
                                  • Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are increasingly common in the medical imaging industry. Advertising and IT giant Google recently announced a new set of artificial intelligence tools aimed at letting healthcare organizations use the search giant’s software and servers to read, store and label medical images. Google's AI technology was initially developed primarily for consumer applications in Google Photos, Google Image Search, and Google Lens. GE Healthcare won FDA clearance for its "deep-learning powered" MRI software that it says can produce better image quality while providing patients a quicker trip inside the scanner. Company officials say that FDA clearance expands the company’s AIR Recon DL programs from 2D to 3D imaging sequences, eliminating the need to take multiple 2D scans to reach a diagnosis in certain cases.
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