Why will Demand for Electronic Health Record Swell in North America in Future?

Electronic Health Record (EHR) Market

The increasing requirement of streamlining and centralization of healthcare administration is a major factor responsible for the growing adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) in various healthcare settings such as clinics and hospitals. The governments of several countries around the world are increasingly implementing policies and regulations for promoting the usage of electronic health records in medical facilities.

With everything going digital, why must healthcare stay behind?! Currently, the most-common form in which digitization in the healthcare sector is visible is electronic health records (EHR). As is clear by the term, an EHR is nothing but a digital file containing a patient’s complete medical data, including prescriptions, log of doctor visits, results of hematological and radiological studies, surgery reports, diagnosis, information on follow-ups, and even billing and insurance data. EHR has several advantages, such as a lesser need to visit the doctor, as the digital file can simply be shared over the internet.

Charting is something many doctors and members of the hospital administrative staff dread as it involves a ton of paperwork. Plus, with the rapidly rising number of patients at all kinds of healthcare facilities, filling and maintaining such records over the long term have been giving the medical fraternity metaphorical heart attacks. Then, there is always the added risk of these pen-and-paper records getting misplaced or torn up (accidentally). This paperwork is an even-severer headache for private practices, where individual doctors not only have to deal with patients but also run a business.

Among all, the medical fraternity is currently using this technology the most for practice management.

The term ‘practice management’ refers to all non-clinical aspects of healthcare, including appointment scheduling, patient registration and pre-visit check-ins, billing, regulatory compliance, staff hiring and payroll processing, claims processing, and even marketing. From individual doctors to large healthcare firms with multiple medical facilities, everyone is using EHRs to simplify their practice management and make it cost-effective.

Along with this, the usage of EHRs for e-prescriptions is also picking up as it helps curb medication fraud. In the popular medical drama House, M.D., the titular character, Dr Gregory House, is regularly seen forging Dr James Wilson’s signature on the prescription pad to get Rx drugs, most often Vicodin, to satisfy his addiction to pain medication. This is the kind of behavior e-prescribing via EHR seeks to curb, as the computerized prescriptions are most often secured by digital signatures and the blockchain technology, which makes them hard to be forged or modified.

Electronic Health Record has several components,

including patient management, practice management, referral management, e-prescription, population health management, and others. Among these, practice management has found the most-widespread application in the years gone by, as the focus on improving the daily operations of clinics and large-scale medical centers is strong. In the future, the adoption of the e-prescription component is expected to increase the fastest, mainly due to the rising need to prevent prescription fraud. A doctor sends the electronic form of the prescription to the pharmacist, which makes it difficult for the prescription to be manipulated.

When there are a lot of people in need of medical attention, there is a need for the digitization of healthcare to cope with the ever-increasing patient count. All the people seeking medical attention need to be provided with a diagnosis and prescriptions. In this ever-changing world, there is havoc created by chronic diseases. Between the years 2000 and 2030, Americans having chronic conditions will go up by 37%, an upsurge of 46 million persons.

The main goal of the HITECH Act was to improve and modernize the healthcare system in the country.

The EHRs not only significantly reduce the costs of healthcare,

but they also help tremendously in maintaining the quality standards of medical services.

In addition to this, the usage of EHRs makes the evaluation of epidemiology studies smoother and more efficient.

As a result, many regulatory bodies are increasingly preferring the use of these devices,

for assessing the data collected from the epidemiology studies.

Moreover, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sought $100 million in funding in 2019 to use EHRs to ascertain the safety of drugs, as the centrally available information, specifically those filed in EHRs deployed on the web or cloud, allows researchers to see the drug trial results and analyze them. This initiative is aimed at allowing patients to stay on top of the latest in drug development. Due to such initiatives, North America has been the largest EHR market till now.

Moreover, the region boasts advanced IT infrastructure and high state-led healthcare spending,

which allow doctors to procure and use such technologies.

Geographically,

the North American electronic health record (EHR) market was observed to be the most lucrative during the last few years and this trend is likely to continue in the forthcoming years as well, as per the forecast of the market research firm, P&S Intelligence. This is ascribed to the increasing awareness amongst the public about the importance of EHRs in medical facilities and the presence of a growing geriatric population in the region. In this region, the U.S. is predicted to observe the highest demand for EHRs in the future years.

 In India.

There is a system called e-hospital advanced for usage in dispensaries and hospitals across the nation.

currently operational in approximately 50 hospitals.

Likewise, to mechanize various procedures, AIIMS has applied an IT solution.

It is correspondingly working to develop additional modules and other organizations are trying to imitate it.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued rules for EHR standards.

Together with this, it is in the procedure of generating the National e-Health Authority.

which will care for standards-related matters and likewise revise other protocols to cope with the matter.

The paybacks of EHR in epidemiology are another main factor for the development of the growth of the EHR market.

For example, the FDA has requested over $100 million, for an EHR initiative.

To assess the safety of the drugs controlled by it,

as Electronic Health Record allows researchers to analyze data.

Additionally, with the use of this system,

healthcare workers and patients can have an idea of the present drug development stage

and clinical trials and outcomes that were attained from formerly accomplished trials.

Worldwide.

North America had the highest demand for EHR in the past.

and the trend is continuing in the current scenario as well.

This has a lot to do with the growth in its elderly population,

and the upsurge in the consciousness about the significance of EHRs in healthcare settings.

The U.S will be the leader of the industry in the region.

With scientific developments and the inclusion of AI, the demand for EHR has grown leaps and bounds.

Emerging economies like India and China have a huge growth potential in the industry.

as APAC is seeing the rapid acceptance of these systems.

This growth is also because of the investments in healthcare by, public and private enterprises. Furthermore, numerous developing countries have a large population.

and with the snowballing occurrence of chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, and CVDs.

the high volume of patient data has to be managed.

All these factors together will generate the demand for EHR solutions, for efficiently managing patient information.

Therefore,

it can be said with surety that the adoption of electronic health records will increase tremendously in healthcare settings.

all over the world in the coming years,

primarily because of the ballooning requirement of advanced healthcare information devices.

and the increasing digitization in the healthcare industry across the world.

The demand for EHR systems is rolling because of the increasing elderly population and the government initiatives for the same.