Q4 device financing reached $902 million versus Q3’s $734 million, while device M&A dollar volume increased $19 billion, from Q3’s $4.9 billion. Diagnostics companies raised $750 million, an 85% rise over the previous quarter’s $405 million; although diagnostics M&A totaled just $1 billion, it was the most deal-active quarter of 2014 with 11 transactions.

Healthy market growth, the biggest ever M&A deal, a record number of billion-dollar takeovers, and the IPO market in impressive bounce-back…2014 was a year of superlatives for the global medtech industry. But with more expected of manufacturers while health care spending remains in the doldrums and demand for care rises, the long-term medtech winners will be those who can forecast how and where to make an impact on both costs and patient outcomes.

Medtech manufacturers saw 2014 as the year of the medtech mega-merger and a rebound in IPOs. But the market is changing, and companies are increasingly cast as service providers who must deliver value.

Zoll Medical will acquire the firm for undisclosed terms. Advanced Circulatory Systems makes intrathoracic pressure regulation therapy to non-invasively improve circulation to the brain and other organs.