Diagnostic Services enable the facilitation of high quality, cost-effective, and timely diagnostic care in secure as well as safe environment. Diagnostic services include clinical service area of Pathology containing Molecular Biology, Clinical Microbiology, Histopathology, Hematology, Surgical Pathology, Clinical Biochemistry and Radiology comprising X-RAY, Sonography, MRI, CT Scan, Mammography, and PET/SPECT. Moreover, these services function in with the surroundings area of acute care, rehabilitative care, mental health, ambulatory as well as geriatric care. Combining these diagnostic services into an interdisciplinary assemblage enables the distribution of awareness as well as understanding and permits consistency of policies and practises.

Rapid growth in population and high prevalence of infectious diseases is expected to bolster the diagnostic services market growth in India.

The Indian diagnostic services market sector remains well positioned to benefit from favorable demographic shift, increased incidence of lifestyle-related diseases and rising adoption of evidence based Medicine. Moreover, the remarkable increase in Indian population over the years along with the increase in number of infectious disorders demanding appropriate diagnosis and care is anticipated to boost the Indian diagnostic services market during forecast period. In addition, growing healthcare spending, increasing acceptance of precautionary health diagnosis, rising acceptance of medical tourism in the country and developed healthcare substructure in Tier II and Tier III cities are other major factors which have amplified the growth of Indian diagnostic services market in India.

Indian Diagnostic Services Market Segmentation:

The Indian Diagnostic services market is segmented on the basis of diagnostic tests and diagnostics laboratories.

On the basis of diagnostic tests, the Indian Diagnostic Services market is segmented into:

• Pathology Tests
  • Molecular Biology
  • Clinical Microbiology
  • Histopathology
  • Hematology
  • Surgical Pathology
  • Clinical Biochemistry
• Radiology Tests
  • X-RAY
  • Sonography
  • MRI
  • CT Scan
  • Mammography
  • PET/SPECT

On the basis of diagnostic laboratories, the Indian Diagnostic Services market is segmented into:

• Diagnostic Laboratories
• Polyclinics and Independent Diagnostic Laboratories
• Online Diagnostic Laboratories

Pathology expected to dominate the overall diagnostic services

Pathology contributes the highest market share followed by the imaging segment. Among the various segments of the pathology market, Clinical Biochemistry holds the highest market shares followed by hematology & others.

Diagnostic chains continue to take away market share from the regional players

The Pan-India chains such as SRL Diagnostics, Dr Lal PathLabs, Thyrocare and Metropolis have strong geographic concentration in their revenue mix. In the past few years, these diagnostic chains have focused increasingly on high-end testing and wellness segments.

The diagnostic chains have grown rapidly over the last few years and continue to eat into market share of standalone and regional centers. Over the last few years, diagnostic chains focus on creating an improved brand image by organizing health camps, offering home collection services and various test packages, and better quality of services. The large diagnostic chains also have higher bargaining power through bulk purchase of reagents, which allows them to keep the input costs low.

Polaris Market Research’s view of the sector going forward

The sector has seen a wave of fund-raising activities in 2017 and key among them include Krsnaa which is developing a low-priced shop-in-shop model, Healthians which is working on an asset-light aggregator-like model, and Core and iGenetic who are developing a focused high-end diagnostics model. While existing hospital chains like Max India and Apollo Hospitals are looking to leverage their brands to scale up their diagnostics business beyond captive volumes, Mankind and Dalmia, are among some of the potential new entrants in the near to medium term. Polaris Market Research believes the industry to consolidate in the next few years driven by dominance of hospital-based labs, low entry barriers, lax regulatory environment and strong mix of regional players.

Regional players’ expansion is supported by strong private equity Investments

The Indian diagnostic services market is dominated by smaller regional diagnostic chains in major cities. There are regional diagnostic chains in each geography. Hitech Diagnostic Centre in Chennai, Suraksha Diagnostic in Kolkata, Suburban Diagnostics in Mumbai and Vijaya Diagnostics in Hyderabad are instances for such regional chains. The sector landscape is undergoing a seismic shift with private equity (PE) capital enabling smaller players to become more aggressive in the market.

Key players in the Indian Diagnostic Services Market are:

• Thyrocare Technologies Limited
• Lal Pathlabs
• Metropolis Healthcare Limited
• SRL Diagnostics
• Max India
• Apollo Hospitals
• Oncquest Laboratories Ltd.
• PathCare Labs Pvt. Ltd.
• Quest Diagnostics India Private Limited,
• Super Religare Laboratories