SIC 3845 Electromedical and Electrotherapeutic Apparatus
SIC 3845
This classification comprises establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing electromedical and electrotherapeutic apparatus, such as magnetic resonance imaging equipment, medical ultrasound equipment, pacemakers, hearing aids, electrocardiographs, and electromedical endoscopic equipment. Establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing electrotherapeutic lamp units for ultraviolet and infrared radiation are classified in SIC 3641: Electric Lamp Bulbs and Tubes.
334517
Irradiation Apparatus Manufacturing
334510
Electromedical and Electrotherapeutic Apparatus Manufacturing
The electromedical and electrotherapeutic apparatus manufacturing industry underwent tremendous growth during the last three decades of the twentieth century. Rapidly improving technology led to a wide range of new, high quality devices for imaging diagnostics and therapeutics. By the mid-2000s growth had slowed, but the industry still retained many avenues for expansion as technological advances continued. This industry contains some of the most important life-saving equipment and technology in modern medicine, including electrocardiograph (EKG) devices, ultrasound scanning devices, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment, pacemakers, and defibrillators. As the applications for diagnosis expanded, the number of imaging tests requested by physicians and patients was at a record high. In 2003 industry shipment values totaled $12.5 billion.
Approximately 475 companies in the United States manufactured electromedical or electrotherapeutic devices as their primary business in the mid-2000s. Approximately one-fourth of all firms had 100 or more employees. These establishments accounted for almost 90 percent of the industry's total shipment values, and the largest nine companies (with more than 1,000 employees) generated approximately one-third of revenues.
In the mid-2000s California led all other states in electromedical device production, manufacturing 19 percent of the industry's total shipments and employing 20 percent of the industry's total workforce. With its approximately 120 manufacturing facilities, California contained almost three times as many facilities as the second and third ranking states, Minnesota and Florida, each of which had 42 firms.
Although classified as a distinct industry by the U.S. Government's Standard Industrial Classification Manual in the early 1990s, the electromedical industry was not always regarded as such, functioning for roughly the first twenty-five years of its existence in an ancillary position to the then-larger X-ray apparatus and tubes industry. From the early 1960s to 1987, electromedical industry statistics were combined with those of the X-ray apparatus and tubes industry. During that time, the electromedical industry evolved from a group of manufacturers representing a modestly sized market into a genuine industry of it own. The classification "X-Ray Apparatus and Tubes; Electromedical and Electrotherapeutic Apparatus," initially was a logical combination of what became two separate industries, primarily because the X-ray apparatus segment overshadowed the smaller electromedical segment, generating the bulk of the industry's revenue and representing a more formidable economic force.
In 1987, when many industries were reclassified to more accurately reflect the true nature of American industry, the X-ray apparatus and tubes segment of the classification "X-Ray Apparatus and Tubes; Electromedical and Electrotherapeutic Apparatus," became SIC 3844: X-ray Apparatus and Tubes and Related Irradiation Apparatus, while the electromedical segment, by then a larger industry than the X-ray apparatus industry, became SIC 3845: Electromedical and Electrotherapeutic Apparatus. This reclassification by the Standard Industrial Classification Manual, however, came more than a decade after the electromedical industry had eclipsed the X-ray apparatus industry in magnitude, serving as a somewhat belated recognition of the electromedical industry's force. Consequently, during the electromedical industry's prolific rise to the fore in the 1970s, all of the statistics that tell the story of its growth are somewhat inflated due to the inclusion of the statistical information generated by X-ray apparatus manufacturers.
In the half century following World War II, the electromedical industry recorded greater growth than the four other industries composing the medical and dental industrial category, outpacing the revenue growth of the surgical and medical instruments industry, the surgical appliances and supplies industry, the dental equipment and supplies industry, and the X-ray apparatus and tubes industry. The rise of the electromedical industry to a position of prominence within the medical and dental category was attributable primarily to the revolutionary nature of the products manufactured under its purview, a diverse selection of technologically sophisticated medical devices that greatly ameliorated the art of medicine not only in the United States, but throughout the world.
Truly a product of a technologically modern society, the electromedical industry owes its emergence largely to research and development conducted in the 1950s by scientists and manufacturers in the then-nascent semiconductor and computer industries. From these two technological staging grounds, combined with advancements in the electronic field resulting from the enormous effort put forth by the nation's space program, the process by which electronic technology developed was greatly accelerated. The knowledge gained from these three components of American industry, each heavily dependent on electronic technology, proved to be a boon to other industries as well, strengthening some, while enabling the outright creation of others. Such was the case with the electromedical industry, which emerged during the 1960s.
To be sure, there were precursors to electromedical devices before the 1960s. Electrical...
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