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Technology Trends and Investments Are the Critical Needs of Today's Healthcare Systems

Posted on: Wednesday, 16 April 2008, 12:00 CDT

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c88867) has announced the addition of "Critical Needs of Today's Healthcare Systems: Technology Trends and Investments for 2007 and 2008" to their offering.

In the past decade, the needs of the healthcare industry have changed dramatically, compelling the infrastructure and information technology efforts of most healthcare organizations to change along with them. Between the fast-paced development of new technologies, government mandates for how the industry develops and uses those technologies, and world events like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, healthcare organizations have had to adjust themselves quickly to move with these powerful and changing tides. Because of this, ascertaining the truly critical needs of the healthcare system has been difficult in the here and now.

The surveyed individuals working in the diverse healthcare information technology arena in order to provide a much-needed benchmark. Survey respondents provided their insights on their information technology priorities for the next two years, the key technologies toward which their organizations will be allocating significant funds, the impact of key trends in the healthcare sector on their organization and the industry at large and the emerging technologies they view as having the most influence in the years to come.

The survey gathered 303 respondents from various healthcare settings -- hospitals, managed care facilities, government agencies, ambulatory care centers and others -- between July 24, 2006 and August 1, 2006. Approximately 40% of those respondents stated their primary work function could be categorized as information technology or informatics-related. Three-quarters of respondents stated they were employed at their organization's corporate headquarters, and all but 8 of the participating organizations were headquartered within the United States.

The majority of participants said that the organizations they represented were privately owned (53%), employed approximately 5,001-10,000 healthcare workers (23%), and had annual corporate revenue of less than $50 million. Approximately 50% provided patient beds for overnight stays and 31% had 100 physicians or more employed at their location.

This sample is a diverse yet robust one, well representative of the current healthcare sector at large.

Key findings discussed in this survey report:

- For the most part, the organizations surveyed vary significantly in what they prioritized as important for the next two years versus the technologies for which they allocated the most monies.

- The exception to the above is Electronic Health Records (EHRs). The respondents indicated that an EHR was a significant priority -- in most cases their first priority -- and also indicated it would receive a high amount of funding. In many cases, however, the EHR category was not receiving the highest amount of expenditure for their organization, nor were EHR-related technologies receiving the majority of spending across both Year One and Year Two.

Extensive survey report provides an in-depth look into the information technology needs and priorities of healthcare organizations for the next two years. The report outlines the key technology needs -- EHR-related, financial and administrative, infrastructure, other core technologies -- for all types of healthcare delivery systems and payer organizations.

Digging even deeper, the report examines provider spending allocations and implementation plans in over 20 healthcare technology areas, including:

- Electronic Health Records (EHRs)

- E-Prescribing

- Computer-based Physician/Provider Order Entry (CPOE)

- Clinical Data Repository

- Wireless Networking

- Privacy & Security

- Revenue Cycle Management

- Disease Management

The importance of each technology across acute, non-acute, and managed care organizations is explored, with emphasis given to the ways in which organizations plan to allot their investments -- internal staff, outsourcing and off-the-shelf software (with Cerner, McKesson, Siemens, Meditech and many others providing solutions to the organizations surveyed).

Critical Needs of Today's Healthcare Systems broad focus also gives context to key trends in the healthcare sector, including Pay-for-Performance and the continuing shift toward ambulatory care, and their impact on information technology. Also included in the report is a glimpse at what healthcare IT executives view as the emerging technologies that will have the most influence on their sector in the years to come.

Key Topics:

- Assessment by Organization Type

- Investment in EHR-Related Technologies

- Investment in Financial and Administrative Technologies

- Investment in Infrastructure Technologies

- Investment Other Core Technologies

- Healthcare Trends and Information Technology

Companies mentioned:

- American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA)

- Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT)

- Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society

- The National

- Alliance for Health Information Technology

- 3M

- Cerner Corporation

- Cisco Systems

- Companion Technologies

- Computer Associates

- CPSI

- Dell

- Eclipsys Corporation

- EMC Corporation

- Epic Systems Corporation

- EqualLogic, Inc.

- Galvanon, Inc.

- Hewlett-Packard Company

- HLA Lab Software (ProSoft)

- IBM

- Ingenix

- InteGreat Concepts, Inc.

- IO Practiceware

- Kronos Inc.

- Kryptiq Corporation

- Lawson

- McKesson

- MEDai

- MEDITECH (Medical Information Technology, Inc.)

- MedMined (Cardinal Health)

- MedPlus (a Quest Diagnostics Company)

- Microsoft

- Netgear, Inc.

- NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, Inc.

- PeopleSoft (Oracle Corporation)

- Per-Se Technologies (to be acquired by McKesson)

- ProcessDATA Ltd.

- SeeBeyond Technology Corporation

- Siemends Medical Solutions

- Solucient (The Thomson Corporation)

- Stinger Medical

- Sycle

- Symantec Corporation

- The CBORD Group, Inc.

- UMT Products (Laubrass Inc.)

- VasTech (Visual Advance Systems Technology)

- Vignette Corporation

- Xiotech

- Zynx Health Incorporated

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c88867

Source: Business Wire

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