How is the EHR and Healthcare IT Future in United States

Since February 2009, when the stimulus package by US Federal Government launched, EHR and Healthcare IT market has ceaselessly remained in the news due to the mandates, financial benefits, meaningful use & penalties incorporated with the EHR adoption by physicians.

The EHR market has witnessed a growth of 13.6% in 2010, which is in fact lower than expected. Initial reasons included lack of clarity on Meaningful use, confusions on incentive payments, reluctance to the technology adoption among others. Gradual steps to overcome these barriers were taken by the US federal government through various educational & aiding programs including establishment of Regional Extension Centers (REC), Health Information Exchanges (HIE) and regular declarations to clarify the ACT. It also helped to improve the awareness for the healthcare IT and to build a positive mindset. RECs have been playing vital role in promoting healthcare technology in an under served area of the states. To assist physicians in identifying EHR software which best fits their requirement, majority of the RECs have been analyzing various EHR vendors. Physicians are taking benefits in terms of getting assistance in EHR selection, participating in various educational programs and availing guidelines for implementation and functionalities of the EHR technology which will help them to achieve Meaningful Use.

It is not only physicians or clinics, who have a positive perception for the EMR / EHR technology; even patients have also got faith in the system. Concerning security of personal health records, patients also feel more comfortable with the physicians who use EHR to store and access their personal health details in the certified and secured EHR system. It is more accurate and safer than any manual / paper records.
After all the cumulative procedures and efforts, recently when stimulus incentives has been started to deliver to the physicians, an adoption of EHR is on peak this time. As per the stipulated rules, by the end of 2014 every physician must have adopted the EHR system to qualify for stimulus money. But to avail the maximum financial benefit, physician has to adopt it in 2011 itself. The late you adopt, the less you get. If you don’t adopt, then be prepared for penalty.

As per the prediction of IDC - a renowned market research company, EHR spending is expected to grow up to $3.8 billion in 2015; the same was approximately $2 Billion in 2009.

Let us expect the fully automated and secured healthcare operations in the US clinics and hospitals by 2015 which will also improve overall productivity and patient care.

India to expand cloud computing infrastructure soon

One of the Bid Four Auditors & a research firm Ernst and Young has reported in their resent survey about increasing adoption of cloud computing infrastructure among the Indian IT firms.

Cloud computing infrastructure refers to the Pay Per Use model where IT/ITes companies provide access of their applications and software to the client over internet without deploying the entire system at client’s end. Some of the substantial benefits of cloud computing model are lower initial cost, fast and easy implementation and painless upgrades among others.

Cloud computing has three parts. Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). A survey revealed that over 72 percent of Indian IT Infrastructure firms are willing to adopt cloud computing in a big way over the next 2-3 years.

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Regional Extension Centers playing key role for Primary Physicians to achieve meaningful use of EHR

As a part of Obama’s HITECH Act, 60 regional extension centers across the US has been selected so far and granted $643 million to provide technical assistance & education to 100,000 primary care physicians to implement Electronic Health Records.

Selected RECs has been evaluating EHR products in the market to provide best references and choice to the physicians in their respective regions. Many of the RECs has already selected their preferred EHR vendors who will work closely with the RECs to achieve meaningful use by adopting their EHR solutions.
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Meaningful Use Finalized Finally

A most awaiting decalration in the Healthcare IT industry for the finalization of Meaningful use is finally declared by US Health and Human Services Dept. This declaration has ended all the assumptions and fears in the physicians while accepting EMR technology to avail Incentive payments under HITECH Act.
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CMS to publish "Meaningful Use" final rule on July 14

A highly anticipated finalization of "Meaningful Use" is finally coming up on July 14. This rule will finally decide how Physicians & organizations will become eligible to get EHR incentives while using it Meaningfully.

CMS also plans to unveil its plan for aligning its Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) with the EHR incentive program in mid-July.
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Real Story Group 2010 Market Analysis Reveal Tech Buyer Risks

The Real Story Group (formerly CMS Group) just released its annual Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and Document Management (DMS) overview. It assess changes occurred in the last 12 months as well as trends in today’s market place.

According to the new survey, the divide between ECM suite and more specialized DMS product suppliers is becoming more pronounced, giving buyers more choices to address a broad range of content management challenges.

Just as importantly, the ECM market is strong and continues to grow, with dozens of viable supplier options targeting specific business problems.
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EHR market to exceed $5.4B by 2015

A leading Market Research Company Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (GIA) forecasts Electronic Healthcare Records (EHR) to exceed $5.4 Billion by 2015 in the North America.

After a massive stimulus package of $20 Billion declared by the Obama Government in February 2009 to boost the technology adoption in the US healthcare industry, demand of the EMR has increased significantly. Well, the report estimates many factors including substantial clinical improvement & minimization of staff amongst others.

According to report, factors that will drive the market growth will be primarily the firm recognition by the providers that EMR adoption will improve the clinic’s operational efficiency by digitalization of the entire process.
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