Clinical mobility spending in the United States is expected to grow from $2.9 billion in 2011 to $5.4 billion in 2016, a compound annual growth rate of 12.7 percent, according to a new IDC Health Insights report.

“Business Strategy: U.S. Clinical Mobility 2011-2016 – Forecast and Analysis” provides an updated spending forecast for clinical mobility including hardware (mobile devices and back-end data center infrastructure), IT services and software related to clinical mobility.

Growth in clinical mobility spending in the United States, while strong, is tempered by other demands on IT and the need to respond to health reform initiatives. However, the deployment of the meaningful use technologies, such as EHRs, eRx, CPOE and HIE, will accelerate the use of mobile point-of-care solutions to create more efficient clinical workflows, officials say. 

[See also: IDC launches ACO roadmap.]

"The highly collaborative and mobile nature of clinical teams makes the strategic investment in clinical mobility solutions essential to meet the intense demands being placed on healthcare providers today," states Lynne A. Dunbrack, program director, IDC Health Insights, in a press release. "However, these mobile solutions extend beyond the device and mobile access to clinical application. Clinical mobility is placing new demands on the data center and IT organization."

The report includes assumptions about the macroeconomic forces, technology developments and market characteristics that IDC Health Insights has determined will affect the clinical mobility market. Some of those expected to have the greatest impact on the market include:

• Consumeriziation of technology which is driving clinician adoption of mobile devices and mobile device proliferation
• Increased availability of electronic health information and the resulting clinicians' desire for mobile access to patient data at the point of care
• Infrastructure demands of pervasive computing
• Security to comply with increasing more stringent Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act requirements under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

[See also: IDC foresees big uptick in outpatient EHR adoption.]