Clinical Healthcare IT - Market Share Analysis, Industry Trends & Statistics, Growth Forecasts (2024 - 2029)

Key Highlights

• Over the past few years, the healthcare sector has faced numerous challenges, including the worldwide digital transformation, the COVID-19 pandemic, significant demographic shifts, and growing patient demands. According to Morgan Stanley, the costs dedicated to artificial intelligence and machine learning in the healthcare sector are expected to surpass around 10.5% in 2024, up from 5.5% in 2022. AI in healthcare can benefit almost everything, from communication with patients to assisting with surgeries and creating new pharmaceuticals.
• The National Library of Medicine stated that around 75% of hospitals offered mobile app access, indicating mHealth’s growing role in medicine. With over 96,000 mobile health (mHealth) apps available on major Google Play and AppStore platforms, their variety is vast, including telehealth apps. According to the American Telemedicine Association, around 76% of US hospitals connect with patients and consult practitioners using video and other technology.
• Connected digital tools play a significant role in connected care by assisting patients and providers in streamlining the care continuum. Digital therapeutics, disease screening, patient education/training, and care navigation can be improved using digital tools. Wearable devices can now monitor a patient’s vitals (blood pressure, A1C, etc.) in real time and send readings to a patient’s provider. Further, GenAI can provide efficiency benefits for insurers in billing management and operations, and GenAI chatbots can produce human-like interactions for patients in healthcare customer service tasks.
• One of the biggest challenges of technology in healthcare is interoperability. As part of federal healthcare mandates, organizations must be able to keep patient data secure while also sharing it quickly with care teams.
• The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated care movement from high-cost acute and post-acute sites to lower-cost freestanding and non-acute sites, including increased demand for home-based services and virtual care. The pandemic helped expand the function of IoMT in healthcare at an exponential rate. The volume provides an overview of modern technologies used to improve healthcare, such as IoT, artificial intelligence, and others.

Clinical Healthcare IT Market Trends

Electronic Health Record (EHR) is Expected to Witness Significant Growth

• An electronic health record (EHR) is the current trend in healthcare technology, serving as a centralized repository for patient data and effectively streamlining the information management process. A Google Cloud study found that around 59% of doctors think that better interoperability helps them quickly figure out which patients are at high risk, while 95% agree that improved interoperability would make patient outcomes better.
• According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, approximately 45% of patients reported that the quality of care had increased due to EHR system adoption, with only around 6% reporting a decline in the quality of care.
• In the upcoming year, EHR developers and IT specialists will continue to ensure that they update EHR systems to comply with interoperability policies. On August 1, 2023, CMS announced a 3.1% net increase in Medicare inpatient prospective payment system rates for fiscal year 2024, benefiting hospitals and clinics that effectively use EHR systems and maintain quality measurement data.
• Providers such as eClinicalWorks substantially impact the healthcare sector, with over 850,000 healthcare professionals utilizing EHR technology. Their EHR solutions are widely adopted in the United States, serving more than 130,000 medical practices.
• As per the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the percentage of physicians with electronic access to lab results was around 77%. The EHR adoption rates in community practices increased to 57%. Canada invested over CAD 2 billion in digital health projects, including EHR initiatives.
• Moreover, AI algorithms can analyze EHR data to identify patterns and trends, helping healthcare providers streamline workflows, improve documentation accuracy, and enhance clinical decision-making. For example, Epic EHR, one of the leading Electronic Health Records software systems, integrated the AI into its software using Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service. Another EHR software provider, Allscripts, used Azure OpenAI’s GPT-4 to create an EHR system with personalized patient care capabilities. The integration assists physicians in creating personalized treatment plans, encouraging patient engagement, and achieving better treatment effectiveness.

Asia-Pacific is Expected to Witness Significant Growth

• Asia-Pacific is ready for rapid technological changes in global healthcare. Moreover, a country like India, which has such a vast population, might benefit the most. As per Invest India, over the next 10 years, the National Digital Health Blueprint can unlock the incremental economic value of over USD 200 billion for the healthcare sector.
• The National Health Authority is providing incentives to healthcare providers and other stakeholders in India's digital health ecosystem who are promoting the creation of digital health records. Up to INR 40 million (nearly USD 500,000) will be made available to ten or more-bed health facilities, diagnostic centers, and digital solutions providers, such as HMIS (Health Management Information System) and LIMS. It will be provided based on the number of digital health records created and linked to the Ayushman Bharat Health Account.
• South Korea's healthcare landscape is highly receptive to the adoption of health IT. All tertiary hospitals have already embraced these technologies, utilizing the EMR systems to digitize patient data and store clinical images digitally, which AI further analyses. Moreover, the government plans to establish around 18 smart hospitals by 2025, offering substantial opportunities to health IT solution providers.
• Singapore’s strategic geographical location, strong information technology infrastructure, and favorable climate for innovation due to strong government support make it an ideal destination for a digital healthcare hub in the Asia-Pacific region. As of March 2022, SingHealth partnered with the National Supercomputing Centre and Nvidia to develop a supercomputer at the SGH campus. This supercomputer has expertise in AI and will help researchers develop more innovations to improve clinical outcomes.
• With increasing investments in digital infrastructure in Asian countries, the demand for clinical healthcare is expected to grow.

Clinical Healthcare IT Industry Overview

• March 2024: Stanford Medicine and Microsoft announced the enterprise-wide deployment of Nuance Dragon Ambient eXperience Copilot (DAX Copilot), providing conversational, ambient, and generative AI to Stanford Medicine’s clinicians.
• March 2024: Providence and Microsoft announced a strategic collaboration aimed at accelerating AI innovation in healthcare. Leveraging Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare and Azure as a standard platform, the collaboration focuses on delivering AI-powered applications to improve interoperability, generate clinical insights, and enhance care delivery.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
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