The increasing use of digital surgery technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) are expected to provide surgeons with qualitative and quantitative support to aid decision-making and surgical actions and, importantly, would link decisions to patient outcomes.
In addition, patients would have access to quality surgical care, with fewer discrepancies that arise from unique patient characteristics and surgeon or care facility. Also, the use of AI and similar advanced surgical data science solutions will offer the opportunity to create ‘superhuman’ surgery, which will move beyond the data associations that individuals are able to perceive, detect and maintain, to the realm of vast data types and sizes that can only be exploited through modern computing solutions.
The digital surgery technologies market includes both the established players such as Medtronic, Brainlab, and tech giants such as Google, Facebook, and IBM, as well as emerging digital surgery technology product manufacturers. Big companies are taking great interest in AI. IBM, Microsoft, Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, Intel, and Fujitsu were some of the machine learning patent producers in 2017.
The companies operating in the global digital surgery technologies market are the manufacturers and providers of digital surgery technology products, such as manufacturers of simulation systems, leading medical device OEMs, emerging tech-startups developing AI-algorithm tools, and software platforms related to surgical data science.
Recently in November 2020, Medatronic acquired France-based company, Medicrea along with its spinal surgery technology to enhance its artificial intelligence capabilities.
According to the market intelligence report published by BIS Research, the digital surgery technologies market was estimated at $252.5 million in 2019. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 32.1% during the forecast period 2020-2030.
The market growth is driven by growth factors, including enhanced accuracy and promising recovery from pre-operative surgical planning, results based on quantifiable data, and increasing interest of technologists and start-ups. The impact of each of the factors is expected to be high in the next three to five years during the forecast period.
The global digital surgery technologies market includes major technologies such as mixed reality, AI algorithms, augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR), and other technologies. However, in 2019 the market was dominated by AI algorithms technology. The large share of this segment can be attributed to the digitization of healthcare facilities and government support toward the adoption of AI.
In the present context, even the payers or insurance companies, especially in the U.S, are also diving into the AI space. In 2018, it was noted that insurers are using AI to assess patient risk for taking proactive wellness actions. Insurance firms are also using AI to establish premiums and to cut downtime and costs associated with the manual health record reviews.
