Health ITPicture This: Medical Animation Market Forecast to Soar to $421M as Demand Grows

Medical animation allows doctors, researchers and others to get an instant view of what various processes are like in the human body, providing unrivalled three-dimensional imagery that’s proving immensely popular and driving global demand that’s set to soar in the coming years at medical facilities around the world.

It’s proving an indispensable tool in many medical fields, including the pharmaceutical industry, as medical animation also allows for a more enhanced understanding of drugs and how they interact with the body’s processes — as well as easily explaining how various products work and their benefits for patients. This can result in a smoother and more efficient sales process as well as making new products more readily available, as potential clients gain a rapid and comprehensive understanding of the drugs — instead of taking time to go through reams of material.  

Now, according to a new forecast of medical animation markets around the world, demand for such services is set to explode in the next few years. Currently, the global medical animation market is worth around $130 million but is set to dramatically expand to more than $421 million by 2026, predicts market research firm Report Consultant.  

‘Substantial Growth’ Ahead

According to the forecast, the market expansion represents annual growth in the region of just over 18% during the next seven years, as more medical animation services are developed and used in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. The report breaks down global markets into North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, and looks at emerging market trends, regional outlook, market drivers and restraints as well as various laws and regulations in different countries and how they might impact medical animation services.

It also examines the types of medical animation services being offered in various markets around the world, including 2D, 3D and 4D animation, as well as flash animation. And it takes into account different therapeutic areas where medical animation is increasingly being used, such as in oncology, cardiology, dentistry and plastic surgery. Medical animation can be used to show patients what they will look like following a procedure like a facelift — giving them an immediate and realistic view of the end result and putting their mind at ease ahead of the operation.

Leading the Medical Animation Revolution

The report lists a number of leading global medical animation vendors, including London-based Random42 Scientific Communication and various others. Random42 recently announced the launch of a virtual reality educational experience that takes viewers deep inside the human body and gives them a unique view of the many processes that keep us alive. “We are excited to launch our first truly educational virtual reality experience that is publicly available. We hope that this will go beyond our normal client base so that schools and universities as well as the greater scientific community can gain value from our work,” the company’s CEO and medical director, Ben Ramsbottom, said.

Random42 — so called after chaos theory and a supercomputer’s answer to the meaning of life, in Douglas Adams’ book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (“42”) — employs PhD graduates with specialties ranging from molecular and cell biology to pharmacology, endocrinology and the respiratory functions of the body, and others. It counts some of the top pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the world among its clients.

Rounding out the new forecast for the medical animation sector are the kinds of industries that are using such services, and these are also incorporated into the projections: hospitals, life sciences, academic institutions and manufacturers of medical devices.

This post has been sponsored by Random42