Global Healthcare IT integration Market: Growth of the healthcare IT integration market are high healthcare costs, government initiatives to curb this rising cost and the growing demand to incorporate IT in the healthcare domain

Published Date: 12/05/2021

The global healthcare IT integration market size is expected to reach USD 7.0 billion by 2027 from an estimated value of USD 3.5 billion in 2020, growing at a CAGR of 10.4 % during the forecast period. The increasing need for integration primarily drives the market for healthcare IT integration solutions as a result of the rising healthcare costs and the growing volume of data generated in healthcare systems.

The need to improve patient safety and favorable government and private support for HCIT will also contribute to market growth in the coming years. However, the high cost of HCIT integration is limiting the overall adoption of these solutions. Patient data is complex, confidential, and often unstructured. Merging this information into the healthcare delivery process is a challenge, which has to be met to realize opportunities for improving patient care. Although EHRs have been in use for more than a decade, the market has picked up pace in recent years due to government initiatives in various countries to improve patient security. For example, in the US, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act—enacted under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)—allocated funding for incentivizing hospitals and physicians who demonstrate the meaningful use of EHRs. The regulatory requirements laid under HITECH have boosted the adoption of EHRs and EMRs. Another important consideration in the country is the rising number of accountable care organizations (ACOs), which have contributed to demand as well. Government initiatives in other countries such as Denmark, Sweden, France, and Canada are also encouraging the adoption of EHRs and mandating their meaningful use for controlling the increasing healthcare costs and improving the quality of patient care.

The cost of HCIT integration and interoperability solutions for different medical devices is considerably high. Overcoming such financial constraints is a major challenge for healthcare organizations, especially in emerging economies where it is typically challenging to receive budgetary approvals for IT solutions over medical equipment. Smaller healthcare organizations struggle to implement Internet connectivity to medical devices, mainly due to difficulties in implementing multiple networks with health setups, the lack of wireless connectivity options, and a need to install security layers to avoid data breaches. In addition, the infrastructural costs for implementing an EHR system and associating it with different devices with distinct interfaces form a major obstacle to market growth in emerging regions.
Currently, most telehealth devices in the market are used for monitoring as well as consultation purposes. Advancements in healthcare solutions have made it possible to deliver educational content and ensure uninterrupted communication between patients and healthcare providers. The remote patient monitoring market revolves around the successful integration of medical devices and ICT, which helps in the delivery of healthcare over long distances. Moreover, the COVID-19 outbreak has further increased the demand for telehealth and remote patient monitoring solutions.

Extensive patient information exchanges lead to privacy and security risks and increase the chances of data breaches. In healthcare, approximately one-third of data breaches result in medical identity theft mainly due to a lack of internal control over patient information, outdated policies & procedures or non-adherence to existing ones, and inadequate personnel training. In the US, the Identity Theft Resource Centre reported that the medical & healthcare industry had the second-largest number of data breaches in 2018, along with the highest rate of exposure per breach.

The leading players in this market include Infor (US), InterSystems Corporation (US), Cerner Corporation (US), Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc. (US), Orion Health (New Zealand), NextGen Healthcare Inc. (US), iNTERFACEWARE, Inc. (Canada), Epic Systems Corporation (US), Koninklijke Philips (Netherlands), Capsule Technologies Inc. (US), AVI-SPL, Inc. (US), GE Healthcare (US), Oracle Corporation (US), IBM (US), Corepoint Health (Lyniate) (US), and MEDITECH (US).

North America held the largest market share for the healthcare IT integration market. The growth in this region can also be attributed due to the rising adoption of healthcare information technology by providers, and payers. Moreover, increasing government initiatives for improving patient care and the rising need for healthcare infrastructure optimization are driving the growth of the healthcare IT integration solutions market. However, Asia Pacific is likely to experience rapid growth over the forecast period owing to the existence of large patient population base, increasing commercialization of healthcare IT integration developed by the global market players are expected to drive the growth of the clinical risk grouping solutions market.