Black Book Market Research, the parent group of Black Book Rankings, a healthcare-centric market research and public opinion research company, has released its annual global electronic health records research, including both country-specific adoption status and progress reports on 12 regions and 18 countries, as well as EHR vendor performance ratings for vendors including Allscripts, Cerner, Epic, Intersystems, Meditech and others.

WHY IT MATTERS

The report, 2019 State of Global EHR & Healthcare IT Adoption, assesses the top-rated vendors for various countries and regions.

Here are Blackbook’s top-rated EHR vendor for each country or region, followed by other leading health IT performers for the markets – as well as the number of regional provider organizations polled:

• UK/Ireland: Allscripts; Cerner, Epic, Meditech (679)
• Canada: Allscripts; Epic, Meditech (403)
• Mexico: Harmoni MD Medware; Everis, MV Soul (99)
• Central Europe: Agfa; Cerner, Chipsoft, Epic, Mediasys Dedalus, Philips (377)
• Scandinavia: Cambio; Agfa, Dips, Epic, Tieto Lifecare (424)
• Brazil: Everis; Intersystems, Philips (256)
• Africa: Cerner; DXC, Epic, Intersystems (260)
• Oceania: Allscripts; Cerner, IBM, Intersystems, Napier (390)
• India: Omni MD; Allscripts, MD Synergy, Millennium, Spigot (511)
• Southeast Asia: Epic; Allscripts, Intersystems, Mimsys, Napier (428)
• China: Philips; Cisco, IBM, Yon You (78)
• Middle East: Epic; Cerner, DXC (140)

Black Book collects ballot results on 18 performance areas of operational excellence to rank vendors by EHR product lines, it says. The gathered data is subjected immediately to an internal and external audit to verify completeness and accuracy and to make sure the respondent is valid while ensuring that the anonymity of the client company is maintained.

During the audit, each data set is reviewed by a Black Book executive and at least two other people. In this way, Black Book’s clients can clearly see how a vendor is truly performing, the firm said. The 18 criteria on operational excellence are subdivided by the client’s industry, market size, geography and function outsourced and reported accordingly.

THE LARGER TREND

The global digital medicine market is expected to register substantial growth in the near future, which is associated with high usage of smartphones, rising healthcare expenditures, expansion of software companies, high percentage of population with chronic diseases, and mobile phone proliferations, said Blackbook researchers.

Other factors driving the market are rising of biopharma and biotechnological institutes, augmented R&D investment on digital medicine and rising awareness of personalized healthcare, according to the firm.

However, factors such as huge capital investment, lack of medical knowledge and limited functionality of apps are likely to restrain the growth of the market, Black Book wrote. In addition, the regulations and approvals by government imposed on the product can challenge the industrial growth, researchers said.

Though vendors operating across the big data analytics in healthcare market are concentrating on bringing interoperability and better health information technology through big data analytics to hospitals and health systems, their customers are still focusing mostly on securing the sensitive health data, ensuring patient safety and improving operational efficiencies, according to Black Book.

Furthermore, growth in awareness about adopting population health management and clinical analytics is boosting the growth of this market, it said.

ON THE RECORD

“The development of health information technology has been a major project around the globe,” according to the Black Book report. “Though there has been some recent collaboration among countries and their progress concerning electronic health technology, there has been a lack of focus on the approaches that each country has taken in order to successfully achieve EHR models that help alleviate medical costs and improve patient care through this technological innovation.”

Black Book’s research focuses on 13 countries across six continents and their methods of EHR development thus far and their successes and failures in their attempts to implement this technology.

“They have made a huge investment in resources and time in order to develop EHR technology because health IT adoption is extremely important for healthcare systems around the globe,” researchers wrote. “Electronic health records offer the promise of system-wide quality improvement, cost containment, and overall improved access to care.”

Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT
Email the writer: bill.siwicki@himssmedia.com
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