Health information technology is the fastest growing segment of the $1 trillion global healthcare marketplace, and the "impressive" 11 percent combined annual growth rate is likely to continue through 2013, according to a Scientia Advisors global review released Tuesday.
According to Scientia, a global management advisory firm with offices in Cambridge, Mass., and Palo Alto, Calif., healthcare IT sales will grow by 25 percent, from 4 percent to 5 percent of the worldwide healthcare market, by 2013.
To remain competitive, companies must factor in government incentives, new clinical decision-making and electronic health record requirements,as well as emerging competitors and markets in Asia and elsewhere in the developing world, said Harry Glorikian, Scientia's managing partner.
"Historically, therapeutics and medical devices have captured more than 90 percent of worldwide healthcare product sales," he said. "But with declining marginal benefits from new interventional products and greater emphasis on appropriate use of existing interventions, we project accelerating HIT-related sales."
According to the study:
* In the next few years, most healthcare IT-related revenues will be captured in North America – especially in the United States. But faster growth elsewhere, most notably in China and India, will present substantial opportunities in the long term.
* Healthcare IT expenditures in the United States will be heavily weighted toward in- and outpatient electronic health records at the expense of specialty/departmental information systems and other capital investments.
* Leading players with large, installed bases, proven products and streamlined routes to meaningful use of EHRs are likely to gain share.
* Lower risk, lower cost approaches such as remote hosting may become popular for certain small hospitals. In the current economic climate, healthcare IT companies will lend hospitals the capital required to finance IT investments.
* Clinical decision support systems will likely have a profound impact on clinical diagnostics and therapeutics.
* Over the long term, disruptive innovations such as open source software and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) could lead to dramatically lower pricing.
The review also assessed healthcare IT's likely impact on front- and back-office systems, clinical testing, diagnostics and pharmacies, as well as how government mandates in North America, Germany, Norway, the U.K., China and Australia will affect worldwide healthcare IT opportunity, how the U.S. stimulus bill will affect EHR, CDSS and the adoption of information technology by hospitals of various sizes and the consequences of CDSS for healthcare market participants.
The review, funded by Scientia, was based on extensive primary and secondary research and proprietary analytic methods, Glorikian said.