KIT: The market for diagnostic centres

Strategic tools for the practising manager

Diagnostic tests impact more than 70 per cent of healthcare decisions. The market for diagnostic centres is 4 per cent of the country’s overall healthcare delivery market. It is expected to grow at 20 per cent a year till 2020.

Diagnostic services include pathology, radiology, imaging and speciality diagnostics (cardiology, neurology and so on). Some new opportunities include infectious disease testing, oncology and pharmagenomics.

Traditionally, diagnostic centres were a part of hospitals and physician offices, but with the increase in the scale of healthcare services, these are emerging as stand-alone entities, with various small players and a few organised branded players. It is expected that in the future, diagnostic services will be offered at retail outlets as well as in the form of personalised services at home.

Growing and ageing population, growing research in the area of genomics, and increasing awareness towards early detection and prevention of diseases are some of the reasons which are catalysing the growth of diagnostic centres in India.