US EMR/EHR market to see over 80% adoption by 2016 from 25% in 2009

The growth drivers include regulatory stipulations and government incentives under the ARRA.he electronic medical record/electronic health record (EMR/EHR) market in theU.S.is expected to move to over 80 percent adoption by 2016 from less than 25 percent adoption in 2009.

New trends include the quality of care improvements that result from using EMRs/EHRs in ambulatory practices, their growing capabilities and use of cloud computing, the use of mobile devices in ambulatory practices, and the consolidation of provider vendors as market saturation increases.

The EHR technology itself, the requirements and deadlines for achieving meaningful use and capturing incentives, and the need to change their business practices and integrate the new technology into practice patterns, present complex issues and challenges.

“If providers allow the constraints of meaningful use to dictate their technology choices and limit the goals for implementation, they may only see the short-term incentives and not the long-term strategic advantage that EHR can bring to their practices and may fail to compete under healthcare reform,” said Judy Hanover, IDC Health Insights research director.

Vendors included in the report are: ADP AdvancedMD; Allscripts; athenahealth; eClinicalWorks; Greenway Medical Technologies, Inc.; LSS (MEDITECH); Lumeris; Optum (OptumInsight); and Practice Fusion.

IDC MarketScape: U.S. Ambulatory EMR/EHR for Small Practices 2012 Vendor Assessment provides an assessment of eleven EMR/EHR products from nine U.S.-based vendors that target small physician practices and qualify for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) incentives.

In the report, IDC Health Insights provides an opinion on which vendors are well-positioned today through current capabilities and which are best positioned to gain market share over the next one to four years.