Just about every information source these days points to increased demands on the healthcare IT industry. Many are hoping process efficiencies can be realized by further automating healthcare. Others are focused on the government’s influence related to the adoption of EMR systems. Still others are just doing some math…
Cited from U.S. Census data:
- 303 million total Americans
- 17% are over the age of 65
- 26.4% of the American population are “baby boomers”
- In 2010 every hour 360 “baby boomers” reach 64 years old.
The overall health of United States citizens and other countries is on the decline and chronic conditions (i.e. obesity) are on the increase. It is obvious these statistics are going to have an influence on the Healthcare IT market. To add to the complexity of the market, each healthcare provider has different needs, different systems, different philosophies, and varied levels of technology adoption.
Due to the complexities of the environment and the magnitude of market, you are going to see some strange bedfellows because no one vendor has a silver bullet. Partnerships between organizations that have overlapping functionality and services will become common and necessary. Pathagility recently attended the Executive War College in New Orleans and this sentiment was shared by attending healthcare providers and vendors. While product and technology innovation provides vendor differentiation and choices for providers, execution is at the top of the list. There appears to be a lot of opportunity for vendors that provide innovative technology and have the capacity to work with others – even if they happen to be competitors.