Hospital IS on the rise

For anyone who’s been following health IT, it’s probably not surprising to learn the global market for hospital information systems is expected to surpass $35 billion by 2015, according to the latest forecast by San Jose, Calif.-based Global Industry Analysts, Inc. That’s good news since, here in the U.S., the spike can be attributed to an increase in acceptance of customized technology, such as laboratory information systems and radiology information systems, as well as EMRs.

Although non-clinical IT systems set the cornerstone for the initial adoption of hospital IT, clinical information systems are dominating the market both in terms of popularity and revenues, due to the industry’s increased emphasis on delivering quality healthcare at reasonable cost.

Representing the largest market within the clinical information systems market, the U.S. should see a year-over-year growth rate of about 7.2 percent over the next few years. Driving the clinical IS segment is the healthcare industry’s need for key decision-making in the areas of—say it with me now—cost reduction, workflow optimization and quality improvement.

Results of the GIA report are equally encouraging overseas. Analysts are saying the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) represents the fastest growing hospital IS market, with a compounded annual growth rate of 11.5 percent anticipated over the next few years. Despite its smaller size, this market promises excellent growth opportunities for hospital information systems going forward.

Additionally, the growth of the emerging health informatics market is high in countries such as Australia, China, Thailand, Malaysia, India and the Philippines.

The GIA report doesn’t specifically address mobile point-of-care technologies, but if you weigh its forecast for a burgeoning clinical IS market with recent findings from  Dallas-based Parks Associates—which predicts providers of personal health technologies, such as health monitoring devices and PHRs, can generate over $460 million in revenue in 2013 by targeting the disease management industry—it’s not hard to envision how providers of mobile health IT offerings might benefit from these accompanying trends. A rising tide, as they say, floats all boats.

Of course, revenues are one thing, margins are another.