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Maternal and infant monitoring equipment is a type of sensing device used for monitoring physiological data of mothers and infants. These devices sense various physiological changes of the mother and infant through sensors, amplify and strengthen the information, convert it into electrical information, and finally present it to the user through computational processing. In a narrow sense, maternal and infant monitoring equipment refers to instruments such as fetal heart monitors and contraction monitors used for monitoring the mother's pregnancy and childbirth conditions. In a broad sense, maternal and infant monitoring equipment includes all devices that monitor the physiological status of mothers and infants, including heart rate monitors, blood pressure monitors, thermometers, etc., with an applicable time range from pre-pregnancy preparation to postpartum recovery. Maternal and infant monitoring equipment can be divided into infant monitoring equipment and mother monitoring equipment. Since the fetus initially grows and develops in the maternal environment, it has a weaker response to the outside world, and its health status urgently needs to be obtained through external devices. The most common infant monitoring equipment is the fetal heart monitor, which usually obtains the real-time heart rate of the fetus in the mother's abdomen through ultrasonic Doppler technology or passive auscultation technology to determine the health status of the fetus. The fetal heart monitor usually comes with a contraction probe, which has a built-in pressure sensor that can sense and obtain the tension of the pregnant woman's abdominal wall to determine the delivery time of the pregnant woman and her physiological condition. In addition, the physiological health data of pregnant women during the perinatal period also need to be monitored in real-time to ensure the stable vital signs of both the mother and the fetus. Related monitoring equipment includes electrocardiogram monitors and other basic physiological monitoring instruments such as blood pressure monitors.
Medicaltechnical devices are developing rapidly, providing fertile ground for the development of the maternal and infant monitoring equipment industry
With the rapid economic development, China's medical health level has been continuously improving, and the scale of the medical device industry has been expanding continuously. According to data from Frost & Sullivan, between 2014 and 2018, the market scale of China's medical device industry increased from 255.6 billion yuan in 2014 to 528.4 billion yuan in 2018, with an annual compound growth rate of 19.9%. As a strategic emerging industry supported by the state, China's medical device industry's equipment manufacturing capacity has been continuously improving, and China has become an important exporter of medical devices. Currently, Chinese medical device manufacturing enterprises are mainly concentrated in mid- to low-end products with price advantages. Against the backdrop of intelligent manufacturing and Internet development, China's medical device industry is also constantly striving towards intelligent healthcare and mid- to high-end products. Given that there is a lot of overlap between broad-sense maternal and infant monitoring equipment and conventional physiological detection equipment, Frost & Sullivan has collected and sorted out market scale data for Chinese fetal heart monitors as the market scale of narrow-sense maternal and infant detection equipment. In the past five years, Frost & Sullivan data shows that the market scale of China's fetal heart monitor industry has risen from 4.82 billion yuan in 2014 to 6.68 billion yuan in 2018, with an annual compound growth rate of 8.5%. Due to the continuous increase in perinatal deaths caused by birth defects in China every year, prenatal diagnosis has gradually attracted attention, and families' emphasis on pre-pregnancy monitoring has also increased day by day. The demand for fetal heart monitors has increased significantly. Coupled with the rapid development of artificial intelligence and medical device chips, which provide conditions for the intelligentization and real-time nature of maternal and infant monitoring equipment, Frost & Sullivan predicts that the market scale of China's fetal heart monitor industry will maintain a rapid growth trend in the next five years.
Market scale of China's maternal and infant monitoring equipment industry, 2014 - 2023
Source: fsTEAM software compilation, Frost & Sullivan data center compilation
Policies have been introduced to guide the strategic development of the maternal and infant monitoring equipment industry
The Chinese government has introduced a series of policies to strengthen maternal and infant health management and encourage the use of maternal and infant monitoring equipment, creating a favorable policy environment for the development of maternal and infant monitoring equipment. In December 2015, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress revised the "Population and Family Planning Law of the People's Republic of China", clearly advocating that a couple have two children. The relaxation of the "second-child" policy will promote the rapid development of the maternal and infant monitoring equipment industry. In July 2017, the former National Health and Family Planning Commission issued the "Notice on Strengthening Maternal and Infant Safety Guarantee Work", listing high-risk pregnant women as key monitoring targets and strengthening the treatment of critical illnesses in pregnant women and newborns. Maternal and infant monitoring equipment can monitor the health status of high-risk pregnant women as early as possible to prevent problems such as pregnancy risks at the source. Under the guidance of the notice, the future clinical usage rate of maternal and infant monitoring equipment among high-risk pregnant women will increase. In April 2018, the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Development of 'Internet + Healthcare'", encouraging medical institutions to use technologies such as artificial intelligence to achieve real-time monitoring and evaluation of personal health of pregnant women. Under policy guidance, medical institutions strengthen the importance of artificial intelligence, use intelligent devices for maternal and infant monitoring, improve the quality of health monitoring and management of pregnant women, promote the large-scale introduction of intelligent maternal and infant monitoring equipment, and provide guarantee for the development of the maternal and infant monitoring equipment industry. In November 2018, the National Health Commission issued the "Notice on Printing and Distributing the Assessment Indicators for the Further Improvement of Medical Service Action Plan (2018 - 2020)", determining various indicators for providing remote services to patients. In some areas, fetal heart monitors are directly used as assessment indicators to promote the growth of demand for fetal heart monitors. In the future, with the support of the policy environment, China's maternal and infant monitoring equipment industry will embrace huge development opportunities.
Relevant policies for China's maternal and infant monitoring equipment industry, 2015 - 2018
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Source: Frost & Sullivan Research Institute drawing
The low product awareness is a shortcoming hindering the development of the industry
The public's low awareness of the maternal and infant monitoring equipment industry is mainly reflected in two aspects: low awareness of maternal and infant monitoring equipment and incorrect perceptions during use. (1) Low awareness of maternal and infant monitoring equipment: In 2018, China had a population of 1.4 billion, with rural populations accounting for more than 40%. With a large rural population in China, the overall awareness of intelligent products is not high. Data from the Chinese Health Statistics Yearbook shows that about 5% of pregnant women in China still do not participate in prenatal examinations, reflecting from the side that pregnant women lack knowledge related to maternal and infant monitoring. When pregnant women go to the hospital for prenatal examinations, they mainly focus on understanding the health of the fetus and rely more on doctors, paying less attention to the maternal and infant monitoring equipment used in examinations. In addition, there are few publicity and education activities related to maternal and infant monitoring, resulting in a low overall awareness of maternal and infant monitoring among Chinese families. The public's insufficient understanding of maternal and infant monitoring fundamentally restricts the development of the industry. (2) There are incorrect perceptions during the use of maternal and infant monitoring equipment: The public's low awareness is also reflected in incorrect understandings during use, mainly including the following two points: ① Statements such as "ultrasound can cause fetal malformations" spread wantonly on new media, causing pregnant women to have concerns about the safety of household maternal and infant monitoring equipment. However, in fact, relevant industry experts point out that ultrasound has no harm to the human body under appropriate sound intensity and usage time. Maternal and infant monitoring equipment belongs to medical devices, which have strict sound intensity monitoring requirements and need a medical device qualification certificate, forming a package for product safety. ② Some consumers will buy maternal and infant monitoring equipment from maternal and infant stores without a medical device business license, making it difficult to distinguish information related to its safety and accuracy. Pregnant women' insufficient understanding of the use of maternal and infant monitoring equipment disrupts market order and hinders the healthy development of the maternal and infant monitoring equipment industry.
Multi-party payment business models combining devices and services are emerging competitively
The traditional business model of maternal and infant monitoring equipment mainly consists of "hardware + later service fees", and the payment method is mainly reflected as consumers' independent consumption. This business model deviates from the essence of maternal and infant monitoring equipment as medical devices, providing medical services for pregnant women, and wrongly positions it as an electronic product. Traditional maternal and infant monitoring equipment only serves to judge the health status of mothers and infants and has not been linked to the entire process of pregnancy and childbirth services for pregnant women. Therefore, in the future, the construction of a maternal and infant health medical service platform by multiple interest groups combined with various payment methods will become a trend. (1) Construction of a maternal and infant health medical service platform: The intelligence of maternal and infant monitoring equipment gives birth to a maternal and infant health medical service platform. Through big data sharing, multiple resources can be gathered, breaking through cooperation among multiple channels such as pregnant women, insurance institutions, and medical institutions, achieving online and offline efforts simultaneously to improve consumer experience. Pregnant women can upload relevant fetal information when going to the hospital for prenatal examinations or using household maternal and infant monitoring equipment at home. Medical institutions build databases, doctors form interpretation reports online, provide medical services for pregnant women, and at the same time derive related medical services. Medical insurance institutions make medical insurance budgets, forming a one-stop maternal and infant health medical service. This construction of a medical service platform centered on pregnant women by multiple interest groups gives full play to the value of maternal and infant monitoring equipment and adapts to the development trend of Internet medical services. (2) Multiple payment methods: Household versions of maternal and infant monitoring equipment can be obtained through three channels: retail market, hospital rental, and maternal and infant monitoring platforms. ① The retail market combines offline experience centers with e-commerce platforms to improve personal experience. This sales method mainly relies on individual payment. ② Hospital rental is based on hospitals, building remote monitoring systems, constructing personal files for pregnant women, purchasing equipment from hospitals, and then providing it for pregnant women to use in the form of rental or deposit. This hospital rental method combines equipment with relevant maternal and infant medical services, taking the provision of private doctor services as an entry point, showing as multiple payment methods. ③ Maternal and infant monitoring platforms are established by governments at all levels to build hierarchical remote monitoring centers and provide financial support. Financial leasing companies provide equipment rental, and medical institutions provide medical support. This method mainly relies on government payment.
The living standards of Chinese residents are improving day by day, and consumers have continuously higher requirements for the quality, technology, function, and comfort of health auxiliary products. Personalized, high-quality, and intelligent medical device services will become an inevitable trend. Maternal and infant monitoring equipment can break away from the limitation of location on the basis of retaining the functions of traditional medical equipment, providing convenient, intelligent, and efficient safety monitoring conditions for pregnant women and infants, meeting the needs of social development. Currently, the public's insufficient understanding of maternal and infant monitoring equipment is still the biggest shortcoming hindering the development of the industry. However, against the background of continuous breakthroughs in product technology, continuous improvement of the industry supervision system, and full release of user needs, maternal and infant monitoring equipment is expected to be widely applied, and its market scale will also experience explosive growth.
