Thursday 21 July 2016

Global Primary Care Doctor Market Current Industry Trends & Opportunities

Primary care doctors are the licensed healthcare professionals who diagnose and treat individuals, and help them in restoring their health condition, and thus bring them back to the active life through reducing the physiological complications and restoring the body functions. They are the primary point of advice for the patients due to a number of factors like easy communication, familiarity and the need of cost management. They may refer the patients to a specialized care for the further treatment process. They prescribe a particular diagnosis for the patient and interpret results from it, and thus they formulate a plan, a medication, therapy, referral to specialist and follow-up the results of treatment.  Primary care doctors are present in hospitals, private practices, outpatient clinics, home health agencies, and nursing homes. The activities by the doctors in the industry includes examining the patient’s history, designing the technique or management plan, incorporating the results and providing therapy and education. 


Based on various types of treatment, the Primary care market can be segmented as follows:
  • Family Medicine Doctors: They are board certified to check-up people of all ages.
  • Internal Medicine Doctors: They check-up people above 14 years of age. They check internal organs of the body and prescribes medicine for it. Some of them can also provide care for gynecology and dermatology.
  • Gynecologist or Obstetrician: These physicians provide special care to the women during and after the reproductive phase. Almost all Gynecologists have specialty in Obstetrics.
  • Geriatricians: These physicians have special education to treat adults over 60. They provide medication management and mental assessment related falls and other aging issues.
  • Pediatricians: There are certified to diagnose and treat children from newborn through age 21, through a wide range of diseases.
Some of the major driving factors for the market growth include rising aging population and increasing prevalence of chronic health conditions. Due to the federal healthcare reform, there is high rate of private insurance which made the private healthcare services much affordable for the U.S. population.

Geographically, the Primary care doctors market can be segmented into six major regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Rest of the World (RoW). North America holds the leading position in the Primary care doctors market followed by Europe. Stronger primary care would be an important policy goal by the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee in U.S. because primary care practices that have been redesigned to ensure the provision of patient-centered, coordinated care is a key of high-performance health system. Key factors responsible for their dominance in this market are high aging population, increasing active lifestyle of people, high healthcare expenditure by the government, reimbursement policy and the presence of huge number of physicians. In 2015, there are around 176,893 primary care doctors in Internal Medicine licensed in the U.S. Asia Pacific is the most promising market for the growth of Primary care doctors market due to various emerging economies. Although there are many challenges for primary care physicians like misdistribution and decreasing quality of care measures, key factors contributing towards the growth of the market in these regions include easy market penetration, favorable reimbursement scenario, cheap medication and development of various healthcare infrastructures such as hospitals, clinics, etc.