COVID-19 Impact on Clinical Microscopes in Healthcare Industry
The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the whole planet with its major impacts on the economy and businesses across the globe. The COVID-19 spread worldwide in unprecedented ways due to its high infectious and contagious nature and lack of availability of its vaccine. As a result, the greatest medical challenge in the 21st century is yet to be faced by physicians worldwide. Though the emergence of the virus can be traced back to Asia, many European countries along with the U.S. have been struck massively by the pandemic. The virus has spread across all regions ranging from North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Africa up to South America. The COVID-19 has been declared as a pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO) due to its increased spread across the globe. After the declaration of the pandemic, various countries announced the complete lockdown such as India, China, and other Asian countries to decrease its spread. According to the situation report of 7th June, 2021 by WHO stated 174 million cases of the corona have been reported globally and 3.7 million patients are dead due to the coronavirus. On a slightly positive note, a total of 157 million people have recovered and total of 1.9 million vaccine doses have been administered as well.
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly driven the market for healthcare and diagnostics across the world. The persistence of the COVID-19 for a prolonged period has driven the demand for specific medical devices such as PPE kits and clinical microscopes. Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented shifts in healthcare resources with more resources being shifted to research of coronavirus and testing of COVID-19 patients.
COVID-19 has impacted the global clinical microscopes market in a positive way due to innovations that have been made in the fields such as electron microscopes.
Entire clinical microscope industry has seen a major improvement despite everything being locked down. Several innovations also been carried out during the pandemic. However, about the microscope industry, it is expected to boost in upcoming years due to upcoming innovations in healthcare industry.
IMPACT ON DEMAND OF CLINICAL MICROSCOPES
Clinical electron microscopes application has been confirmed as influential to recent research of coronavirus. From identifying vaccine candidates to analyzing the SARS-CoV-2 spike, research labs and academic institutions around the world have been working closely with operators of clinical microscope to study viruses, cells, and proteins at the molecular level.
Apart from the conventional strategies, other diagnostic methods are under development and validation or are currently finding application in research contexts. Among these methods, electron microscopes-based is one of the methods to represent the armamentarium to effectively diagnose COVID-19 infection and to effectively assess the epidemiological spreading of the pandemic.
For instance, samples of coronavirus infected human lung cells were shared by Germany based Department of Infectious Diseases at Heidelberg University with specialist clinical microscopists’ at core Facility of The European Molecular Biology Laboratory Electron Microscopes. Furthermore demand for X-ray microscopes increased significantly during COVID-19 crisis.
Thus, demand for clinical microscopes has increased due to research and developments made during the outbreak of COVID-19 and rise in demand due to increase in need for diagnosis and detection of disease.
IMPACT ON SUPPLY CHAIN OF CLINICAL MICROSCOPES
The restriction imposed such as the lockdown guidelines disrupted the supply of medical devices such as clinical microscope. Furthermore, owing to the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, the companies are now facing increasing regulatory pressure to handle their equipment with utmost care and have to meet stringent guidelines from the regulators. Few companies have also developed their own e-commerce and digital analytics platforms that has benefitted their supply chain, which has overall optimized the supply chain issue of clinical microscopes.
For instance,
Top Companies such as Olympus life sciences have optimized the digital marketing strategies on basis of making investments. Also companies have adopted various analytics to forecast the demand with more accuracy.
IMPACT ON PRICE OF CLINICAL MICROSCOPES
COVID-19 pandemic has continued to drive the rates higher due to capacity constraints across all regions in the world. Greater visibility, transportation management optimization and planning have helped in reducing the costs while providing predictability in delivering materials and products to their desired destination.
There is currently a shift toward value-based healthcare market which has impacted the clinical microscopes segment in which price and purchase decisions are based on outcomes. This has resulted in increased inspection of the technology of devices. In consequence, the degree of competition has increased. Thus, the clinical microscopes market is expected to have tremendous growth potential in upcoming years.
STRATEGIC DECISIONS BY MANUFACTURERS OF CLINICAL MICROSCOPES
Various strategies are being implemented by the manufacturers such as reach physicians use the strategy as they search with search engine optimization (SEO). Also, pay-per-click or PPC advertising is a cost-effective online advertising strategy that has given the companies an extra edge it needs to show up at the top of search results.
One of the oldest forms of digital marketing in terms of clinical microscopes is email as it is still one of the most effective digital marketing strategies, especially when it comes to medical equipment marketing including clinical microscopes.
CONCLUSION
Pandemic has taken a toll on every aspect of life, including the global economy. With the significant downfalls in many sectors, a collaborative effort of government, industry players, and consumers can win the fight against COVID-19.
COVID- 19 has impacted the market positively there is increase in demand of clinical microscopes and medical devices. Research labs and academic institutions around the world have been working closely with operators of clinical microscope to study viruses, cells, and proteins at the molecular level which has resulted in surge for the demand of clinical microscopes.
Growing demand of clinical microscopes has witnessed increase for laboratory tests related to COVID-19 diagnostics and management. The global pandemic has created increasing awareness among people about health and early testing. This is likely to benefit the clinical microscope market in a positive way.
Thus, the aforementioned trends have impacted clinical microscopes testing positively and have altered the needs for laboratory personnel, analyzers, and reagents. Thus, the global population will have to be more focused on treatment and diagnostics for COVID-19.
