The commercial value and viability of a non-invasive knee cartilage injury detection device

Abstract

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is becoming more common, and is affecting more young population than before. Symptoms including pain and stiffness become present only when the injury is irreparable, and the most effective treatment is surgery. The ability to detect the injury early can prevent the disease progression to that stage with appropriate interventions, saving patients from physical suffering as well as financial cost. This paper assesses the commercial value of such a device that can detect early stages of knee OA injury. The information is useful for private investors as well as policy makers in setting funding priorities. We used questionnaires to collect willingness-to-pay data from 400 respondents in Khon Kaen municipality, and used this data to make revenue projections for a provider of knee injury reading service. We found that the revenue is substantial even for smaller operations like clinics. The willingness-to-pay for a device is about 190,000 THB per year for a small clinic requiring 60% operating profit margin, and goes up to 7.89 million THB per year for a large hospital requiring 30% profit margin. We conclude that if device developers can keep their costs below this willingness-to-pay, an early detection device for knee injury is commercially viable and can reach a wide population.