Published Jan 17, 2013

Ankara, Turkey  - Despite the global economic crisis, Turkey has one of the most attractive economies due to its growing health care sector. As a result of this growth, the market for medial devices in Turkey is also growing. The 2010 figures for Turkey’s medical equipment and disposables/reusables market suggests a capacity exceeding $2 billion (US). Meanwhile, this capacity is expected to reach $3 billion (US) by 2015. This potential makes it more attractive to enter the Turkish medical device market. In recent years, the Ministry of Health of Turkey has been leading Health Transformation Reform. The transformation program changed the health system in Turkey. As a result of this change, Turkish medical device market regulations and market access also changed. The regulations changed to match EU countries. Reimbursement, however, is the fundamental driver of the market access of the Turkish medical devices market. In addition, new directions will change the medical device reimbursement system for reimbursement of medical devices in 2013. With these new directions, economic analysis is going to be mandatory for submitting reimbursement applications in Turkey. The article, “Medical Device Policies & Market Access in Turkey,” published in the November/December 2012 Issue of ISPOR CONNECTIONS (Vol.18 No 6), is a good resource to learn about the Turkish medical device market. An overview of the market access of medical devices in Turkey is mentioned in the study and new challenges for the medical device sector, like hospital unions and implementing DRG payments, is also discussed.

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