Clinical optical imaging market to reach $2 bn in 2020

Led by optical coherence tomography (OCT), the clinical optical imaging market will rise to $2 billion in 2020, more than doubling from 2012, according to Lux Research. With a market share of over 60 per cent, OCT is expected to retain its dominant position as it successfully builds on its ophthalmology applications while expanding into cardiology, oncology and gastroenterology. Other technologies such as near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and photoacoustic tomography (PAT) also hold high potential for growth, while applications such as real-time optical biopsies and surgical guidance will grow into multi-billion-dollar segments over the long term.
 
“The growth of the optical imaging market will be fuelled by the OCT segment in the next five years, primarily because it has the clearest path to mass adoption. Over the long term, however, companies developing multimodal systems such as photoacoustics are attractive because they address larger markets,” said Milos Todorovic, Lux Research analyst and the lead author of the report titled, ‘Advancing clinical imaging beyond the existing standard of care: evaluating new optical imaging modalities’.
 
Typical OCT systems, the size of a medical cart, cost on average between $80,000 and $250,000. Compact Imaging is working to make these devices more affordable by turning toward solid-state components, instead of discrete optical elements.
 
According to Lux Research, while investors looking to enter the OCT market can use acquisitions to gain immediate market share, their longer-term focus should be on firms developing multimodal systems such as PAT. These systems combine the most attractive features of constituent technologies – for instance, the penetration depth of ultrasound with resolution of optical systems – and potentially address much larger markets.