What do Tom Brady, Alex Morgan, Maria Sharapova, Johan Santana and Shaun Livingston have in common? You might have recognized that they are all world-class athletes who have achieved high success in their respective sports. What you might not know though is that they all benefitted from an increasingly popular medical procedure called arthroscopy. Arthroscopy is a procedure for diagnosing and treating joint problems, most of which occur in the knee and shoulders.

Incidences of sports injuries that require arthroscopy have been rising consistently over the past decade. With the evolution of sports culture, young athletes now start competitive sports much earlier than in the past, effectively practicing more and at a higher intensity. Also, adults tend to engage in physical activity well into old age. In 2016, GlobalData estimates sports medicine to have been a $4bn market, mostly dominated by North America and Europe. However, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to contribute significantly to the growth of the sports medicine market in the coming years. This is because in addition to the aforementioned demographic reasons, a rise in average income and the presence of local medical device manufacturers contribute to the affordability of sports medicine procedures.

At a 6.1% Compound Annual Growth Rate, the sports medicine market in Asia is projected to rise to $1bn in 2023. This will make the market more than double the combined net worth of Tom, Alex, Maria, Johan, and Shaun.