EHR Experts

The US health IT industry is likely to receive a major boost with the implementation of the federal government supported Electronic Health Record (EHR) adoption program from this year. According to CMS, Medicare has already disbursed as much as $75 m so far to providers who have demonstrated meaningful use of certified Electronic Health Record software. As more providers begin to participate in the EHR program, the health IT industry is expected to grow manifold in the next few years.

A global research firm, RNCOS, has, in fact, estimated in its new study, ‘US Healthcare IT Market Analysis’, that the health care IT industry in the country will grow 24 per cent from 2012 to 2014, with higher spending on Electronic Health Records and mobile health applications. The current spending on health care IT is about $80 billion a year, the study states.

Although the adoption of Electronic Health Record systems has been punctuated by practical hurdles, the long-term benefits of EHR and government’s seriousness to see its implementation through, is believed to lead more providers to invest in the technology. According to RNCOS, the revenues for health IT software are likely to go up from $6.8 billion in 2010 to $8.2 billion this year on the back of demand for Electronic Health Record software.

Also, with both comprehensive ambulatory EHR systems and non-ambulatory EHRs facilitating mobile health care with their web-based applications, their demand is only going to go up. In fact, mobile health care is becoming so popular, that it is set to be another key driver for health care IT growth, according to RNCOS.

The RNCOS study reveals that 72 per cent of all physicians in the US use smart phones; 20 per cent own iPads and there are already over 10,000 mobile health applications available (6,000 of them on iTunes). All this is fuelling the growth of mobile health care market while is expected to grow at 22 per cent from 2012 to 2014, which will also push up the growth of health IT.

Mobile health applications are now being increasingly used by providers to educate patients, collect data remotely, communicate with distant workers and trace disease outbreaks. So Comprehensive Ambulatory EHR systems and other EHR solutions, which enable physicians to deliver mobile health care, can be immensely useful in early and timely diagnosis and treatment of patients.

Filed under: EHR, EHR companies, Electronic Health Records on June 3rd, 2011