Enterprise Mobility Solutions
2010 Market Intelligence Service, 7th Edition
Track 4, Volume 3: Health Care Service Market Analysis
An Executive Brief
Mobile & Wireless Practice
Balca Korkut, Analyst
David Krebs, Director
Executive Brief: Health Care Service
•
State of the Market:
According to VDC estimates, the mobile health care solutions market – including mobile hardware, software and services – will exceed $3.5 billion in 2010, experiencing significant growth over 2009. The health care industry is expected to experience double-digit growth in the next couple of years fueled in part by government subsidies such as the US ARRA and Australia’s e-health effort.
In 2011 a significant portion of the EHR subsidies from the ARRA will be distributed to physicians and hospitals. EHR penetration has long been cited as a critical barrier to more consistent adoption of mobile health care solutions. Key issues facing health care organizations looking to invest in EHR solutions will likely be a shortage of clinical IT specialists over the near-term. In addition, many of the EHR solutions available have not been optimized for mobile capabilities and especially some of the newer touch and multi-touch interfaces.
Although investment in mobile health care solutions is disproportionately weighted towards the North America market, in many ways other regional and country markets are more advanced in their application of IT solutions in the health care sector. EHR penetration is significantly higher in certain European markets such as Spain, UK and in the Nordics. Moreover, there appears a loose connection with higher EHR penetration in markets with centralized or federated health care models (common in Europe and Australia) and lower penetration in markets with more decentralized models (US, Japan and France).
Emerging markets (BRIC economies, for example) are taking EHR cues from more developed economies. With limited legacy solutions hindering progress, these economies may surpass more developed regions in terms of EHR penetration in the coming years by adopting best practices and newer deployment models such as hosted HIS/EHR systems.
Opportunities for mobile health care solutions span multiple user types and environments. From nurses supporting bedside care/medication administration in hospital environments to homecare aides leveraging mobile solutions for more workforce management oriented applications, opportunities are far-reaching.
Major health care information systems vendors (HIS/HMS) continue to represent the gateway for mobile solutionproviders into the health care market. A critical requirement – especially for emerging form factors such as slate tablets – is to receive vendor certification.
Executive Brief: Health Care Service
•
Technology & Application Trends:
Many health care organizations continue to struggle with mapping workflows with the appropriate mobile device form factors. Cart-based solutions remain central for many hospital applications. These, however, have severe limitations with regard to usability.
Some of the newer purpose-built health care tablets (initially labeled Mobile Clinical Assistants) have been adopted with mixed results. In fact, many of these tablets are being used almost as stationary devices mounted on carts. According to many nurses, the ergonomics of the devices are limiting the portability of the units.
Nevertheless, with the advent of the iPad, interest in slate tablets is at an all time high in health care. In fact, end-users evaluating mobile devices for health care applications indicated a significant shift away from traditional larger form factor devices towards tablets, handheld devices and smartphones.
Growing interest in next generation mobile OS platforms to enable new mobile deployment and support models, including: • Opportunity for cloud optimized devices that have more flexible / thinner Oses and more limited on-board computing andprocessing overhead yet can still operate in disconnected state.
• Interest by health care organizations to gain greater control over their mobile application development and distribution for some next generation workflows and process. However, core (mobile) enterprise applications to remain on legacy platforms (Windows) for near / mid term.
Collaboration among health care professionals is becoming more widely deployed as the number of physicians and nurses with smartphones increases. This is also driving increased demand for UC solutions. UC solutions in the context of health care environments will integrate communications capabilities in reference to the user and the specific workflow to optimize performance. The integration with the EHR platform is critical in the health care setting to deliver the context or presence-awareness necessary to deliver the true workflow benefits of UC solutions.
Although the capabilities and form factors of many consumer oriented mobile devices are appealing to end-users, many fall short in supporting full-shift health care applications. Due to the unique characteristics of health care mobile workers and the workflows they are exposed to, many still require mobile devices that are purpose built for their environments – i.e. designed to withstand the potentially inclement conditions of health care environments; support full-shifts;provide advanced I/O capabilities.
2– 2010 VDC Research Group, Inc.
Health Care Snapshot: Leading Applications
45% 39% 16% Laggard Status Quo LeadersHealth Care Application Taxonomy
Rank Industry 1 Field Mobility 2 Government 3 Manufacturing 4 Health Care 5 Transportation 6 Retail 62% 17% 21% Americas EMEA Asia-Pacific 76% 32% < $1 Billion > $1 Billion Workforce Management
PIMS (Personal Information Management) Asset Management
Wireless Email
Work Order Automation Human Capital Management
Patient Information Management
Patient Check-In/Out/Registration Quality & Control Management Patient Care Reporting
Mobile POS Charting Charge Capture Home Care
In-home Patient Monitoring Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE)
EMR/ EHR
Prescription Verification at the Bedside Remote Physician Information Access E-Prescribing
Charting
Patient Dashboard Location Based Services Home Care
In-home Patient Monitoring Medication Administration
Records/ Document Management
Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE)
Supply Chain & Materials Management
Asset Management Facilities Management Shipping & Receiving Wireless Email
Inventory Management E-Prescribing
Specimen Collection Laboratory Management
