Facts
Medical technology – vital to patients, essential to UK economy
- 30 million people in the UK are forecast to be diagnosed with long-term conditions by 2050 (Source: NHS)
- £476 million in savings could be generated from the use of eight technologies in reduced long-term health costs and benefit payments (Source: MTG Keeping Britain Working Report 2017 / The Work Foundation)
- In 2017 implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICDs) were implanted in Germany at over three times the UK rate (Source: EHRA White book 2017)
- The UK has lower levels of pacemaker use than every country in Western Europe except Norway and Ireland (Source: Eucomed)
- The medical technology industry employs around 60,000 people in the UK (Source: Eucomed)
- The UK medical technology sector is made up of around 2,000 companies, mainly SMEs (Source: ABHI)
- Around 3.8 billion euros are spent on medical technology research and development in Europe each year (Source: Eucomed)
- 500,000 different medical technologies are available (including medical devices, in vitro diagnostics, imaging equipment and e-health) (Source: Eucomed)
- The UK earns around 5.6 billion euros from medical technology exports each year (Source: Eucomed)
- Minimally invasive surgical techniques can allow patients to leave hospital less than 24 hours after a hip replacement (Source: Zimmer)
- 62 million GBP could be saved every year from hospital and consultant visits by increasing insulin pumps to NICE benchmark (Source: The Work Foundation)
- Only one third of patients with fibroids think they have received adequate information on their condition. In a survey NO patients were told about Uterine Fibroid Embolisation, one of the most successful treatments (Source: FEmISA)
