AUSTRIA - Medical Device Industry and Demographic Information

Shown below you will find some basic demographic and economic data on Austria, plus information specific to the medical device and healthcare industry.

Capital city of Austria: Vienna

Total area: 83 858 km²

Population of Austria: 8.2 million

Structure of population in Austria: 
0-14 years: 14.5%
15-64 years: 67.5%
65 years and over: 18% (2009 est.)

Currency: euro

Language in Austria: German

Healthcare expenditures: $3 763 per capita (at int. $ rate, 2007 data)

Number of hospitals in Austria: 264 (2006 data)

Healthcare financing: Public and non-profit general hospitals and public specialized hospitals in Austria have been billed for their inpatients on the basis of the “Leistungsorientierte Krankenanstaltenfinanzierung (LKF)”, the Austrian DRG (Diagnoses Related Groups) System since 1997. In the future the DRG based reimbursement system should be also implemented in outpatient sector.

Medical device industry in Austria: The Austrian medical equipment market is valued at about $2.3 billion in 2009. Despite the current global economic crisis, the market has not been affected much and is expected to continue to grow at 4.9% annually over the next few years as a result of stable government and structured healthcare reforms. The Austrian medical device market is highly dependent on imports. In 2008 over $1.8 billion worth of medical devices were imported, which is 14.9 % annual increase. Consumables accounted for the largest imported category (24.3 %). A share of these imported devices is re-exported to the Central and Eastern European countries. Together with locally produced medical products, the amount exported medical devices reached about $1.2 billion in 2007. The local production of medical devices was estimated at about $800 million in 2007. Opportunities for importers are cutting-edge medical technology: diagnostic imaging equipment (ultrasonic), patient monitoring systems, endoscopy devices, pacemakers, implantable devices, etc.

Medical device distributors in Austria: Due to the language and history, Austrian medical device distributors tend to work with German distributors for product distribution. In addition they also work with many German medical device manufacturers quite often. Austrian distributors usually have links into the Eastern European market because of their location. Therefore Austria can be seen as the port to Eastern Europe.