A recent report from Frost & Sullivan suggests a worldwide demand for more interoperable healthcare systems, with the global market expecting to grow at a compound annual rate of 13.8% over the next four years. 

Much of this growth, said the report, "Global Healthcare Interoperability Market, Forecast to 2024," will be driven by countries with regulated healthcare IT interoperability standards. Government agencies – including ones in the United States – are requiring healthcare stakeholders to meet interoperability mandates. 

This, in turn, is leading to higher adoption of health IT applications and opportunities for vendors involved in healthcare interoperability, said analysts.

"With the advent of innovative delivery models and shifting focus on value-based care, the demand for interoperable systems will continue to grow," said Koustav Chatterjee, transformational health principal analyst at Frost & Sullivan, in a statement.

"Additionally, the ability to achieve medical device connectivity across the care continuum will be critical," he said.

WHY IT MATTERS

Analysts predict that the market for global healthcare interoperability will reach $7.96 billion by 2024, as compared with $4.17 billion in 2019.

The market comprises a wide array of segments that cumulatively support information sharing, explained the report. 

These include application programming interface integration, app integration, data cleansing, data integration, data analytics and data interoperability.

"From product segment perspectives, data interoperability and data analytics will primarily dominate the global healthcare data interoperability market. Both of these solution segments are expected to contribute more than 90% of the global market revenue throughout the study period," said Chatterjee.

"Further, application program interface integration is the third-most important solution segment contributing to global market revenue," Chatterjee added.

In addition to regulatory requirements, key global market drivers included patient engagement driving real-time decision-making; cost reduction in care delivery; and improved patient care.

Market restraints included privacy standards restricting data sharing and concerning cybersecurity; a lack of appropriate reward or penalty system for vendor resistance to a common standard; and implementation costs.

"The industry is proceeding toward vendor-agnostic solutions with the government playing a central role in standardizing foundational frameworks," said the report in its "CEO's Perspective" section.

"With the advent of innovative delivery models and shifting focus on value-based care, the demand for interoperable [systems] will continue to grow," it continued.

THE LARGER TREND

Although the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down enforcement of many – but not all – of the interoperability standards put forth by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, vendors have still rolled out a wide variety of options to aid healthcare systems in meeting those requirements. 

The crisis has also made it clear just how important seamless data-sharing is, with public health agencies often relying on manual processes to gather and submit information.

At the same time, government maneuvers to centralize much of this data – including the recent directive from the Trump administration to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in hospital reporting of COVID-19 patient information – have presented their own technical and cultural snags.

ON THE RECORD 

"Real-time integration of accurate patient-generated data from connected apps and systems into a central command center platform that uses cognitive algorithms to automate care coordination and personalize intervention will be a key competitive advantage during and post-COVID-19," said Chatterjee.

Kat Jercich is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Twitter: @kjercich
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.