5 health technologies poised for triple-digit growth in 2016, HIMSS Analytics says

5 health technologies poised for triple-digit growth in 2016, HIMSS Analytics says

While some are still playing meaningful use catch-up, many other hospitals are charging ahead with new IT buys, with big increases in purchasing plans this year.

Electronic data interchange and in-house transcription are just two of the five emerging health IT applications that will surge in 2016, according to a new report by HIMSS Analytics.

Simply put, there’s “tons and tons of activity” forecast for the year ahead as hospitals look to install or upgrade technologies, said Matt Schuchardt, HIMSS Analytics’ director of market intelligence solutions sales.

The report examines the tech that will be shaping hospitals’ buying plans in 2016, with these five technologies poised for growth of 200 percent or more compared with 2015.

Clinical data warehousing/mining (500 percent more hospitals with plans this year than last year). The huge increase indicates that a critical mass of providers are now moving to the next phase of IT maturity, understanding that electronic medical records are just the basic building blocks for care improvement.

“EMR systems are, at a very base level, sophisticated billing systems,” said Schuchardt. “They capture a lot more data and allow you to bill more effectively. But they’re just the very beginning of what the big data revolution is going to do to health. Hospitals are starting to realize that: The EMR is not the end of the transformation but the very, very beginning.”

Nurse staffing/scheduling (300 percent increase). “It doesn’t surprise me,” said Schuchardt. “It connects with the perception that there is a shortage of physicians. What are we gonna do? The answer is you get physicians to work at their license level, and you get additional supporting staff to work at theirs. A lot of things a doctor does now don’t require a physician to do. A nurse can do it.

“There’s a huge growth in the more specialized nursing,” he adds. “You’re going to need to staff appropriately if you’re going to lighten the load on doctors. Especially when you think about all the consolidation that’s happening, it’s a very low-level efficiency thing: When people buy companies they reduce duplicative staff and make sure you have the right people in the right place. We’re seeing that nurses have a bigger impact because of their touch point with patients.”

Electronic data interchange/clearinghouse (200 percent). “We’re seeing a lot of activity here,” said Schuchardt. “As you think about hospitals and health systems considering the ‘payvider’ model, the ability to handle these transactions is certainly an interim step to that.

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