By HospiMedica International staff writers
The influence of government incentives and the increasing use of electronic medical record (EMR) systems for quality of care and cost-saving reasons continue to drive the market. These are the latest findings of Kalorama Information (New York, NY, USA), an independent medical market research firm.
One of the main factors driving market growth is upgrading existing systems; it is anticipated that current EMR owners will be forced to upgrade to new systems due to the threat of federal penalties. Kalorama forecasts that this trend for adoption will continue to move forward, although slowing somewhat, but that other factors will soon come into play, such as hospital EMR adoption, which will increase to supersede doctor’s EMR adoption. Some hospitals and physician customers will boost the market through vendor switches as they seek the right EMR fit for their organization.
The Kalorama Information report concludes that the EMR market is now mature, and customers have a great deal of vendor choices. The report also contains detailed segment breakouts for EMR market revenues such as software, hardware, and services. A detailed breakout by user is also included, including hospitals and physicians, as well as detailed profiles of companies in the EMR market and market share of top players, which include just six companies that earn over half of the total revenue.
The leading companies include Cerner, Epic (Verona, WI, USA), McKesson (San Francisco, CA, USA), Siemens, GE Healthcare, and Allscripts (Chicago, IL, USA). Smaller companies include NextGen, Athenahealth, eClinicalworks, Abraxas, Ingenix, Integritas, Intivia, iSalus, Keane, Visonta, Advanced Data Systems, AllMeds, AmazingCharts, Aprima, ChartLogic, CliniComp, CPSI, Greenway Medical, Healthland, HMS, CureMD, and many others.
“We think adoption and upgrading activities will still be stimulating growth in 2014-2018. As new systems are sold, companies will still earn revenues from existing clients in servicing and consulting services,” said report author Kalorama analyst Mary Ann Crandall. “We estimate a quarter to a third of customers would like to switch EMRs and may look into replacing their current vendor. The main reasons for dissatisfaction with the system they have include lack of key features, a cumbersome and complex interface, poor EHR usability, and bad hardware. “
The global market for electronic medical records EMR was USD 23.2 billion in 2013, which includes revenues for EMR systems, computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems, and directly related services such as installation, training, servicing, and consulting, which are key profit areas for companies; it does not include picture archiving and communication system (PACS) or hardware.
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