Electronic health records (EHRs) will save the global healthcare industry $78 billion (£49 billion) between 2014 and 2019, according to new research.
As healthcare organisations become more accountable for the measured “wellness” of a patient population – through emerging Accountable Care Organisation (ACO) initiatives – these organisations are rethinking healthcare provision, and this is supporting the evolution of digital healthcare, says technology analysis firm Juniper Research.
With these changes, EHRs are becoming an integral part of future digital healthcare initiatives, and have taken their place as the critical infrastructure supporting a wide range of digital healthcare and mobile health (mHealth) projects.
Over the last 18 months, healthcare workers have become markedly more engaged in digital healthcare. The medical profession will increasingly rely on EHRs to support disparate elements of digital health, say the researchers.
Anthony Cox, the report’s author, noted: “Advanced EHRs will provide the ‘glue’ to bring together the devices, stakeholders and medical records in the future connected healthcare environment.”
However, the diverse nature of the global healthcare industry plus the lack of randomised controlled mHealth trials are holding back development to some extent, warned Juniper. Because of this, digital healthcare approaches often need to be bought in from a large number of stakeholders, and must to be tailored to suit each geographical region.
Aside from this, though, the sector is expected to be buoyed by two factors: the embracing of digital healthcare by regulatory authorities, who are imposing less stringent regulatory obligations on digital healthcare companies; and advances in technology from firms such as Samsung, with its SAMI (Samsung Architecture for Multimodal Interactions) user interface, and Apple, with its HealthKit. These advanced healthcare offerings are serving to popularise digital healthcare.
