Global Industry Analysts, Inc. (GIA) announces the release of a comprehensive global report on the Hospital Information Systems (HIS) market. The global market for Hospital Information Systems (HIS) is projected to reach US$17 billion by the year 2017, primarily driven by the need to upgrade legacy healthcare IT systems with advanced automated systems, financial incentives being provided by governments for adopting technology based innovations and improvements in healthcare, and opportunities from huge underserved market. Robust demand from developing markets, especially Asia-Pacific, also augurs well for the market.
 
Adoption of IT is not new to hospital industry with several IT tools already proving their worth in billing and administrative functions. Use of IT in clinical environment however has been restricted over the years, given the sensitive nature of patient information, medical procedures and treatment regimes, all of which can be vulnerable against data losses, or misuse. However, with growing realization of benefits, and rapid developments in technology, IT is slowly making its way even into the clinical set up, especially for capturing and storing patient records, and managing imaging, testing and surgical room procedures.

The need among healthcare providers to transform their legacy systems into advanced information systems by integrating their clinical, business, and technical assets for achieving profitability and offering services targeting fast changing consumer demands, while still maintaining high degree of service quality and efficiency is also driving hospitals to invest considerably in healthcare IT. Information technology allows critical information to be captured and stored electronically, streamlines clinical workflows, facilitates decision making, and monitors public health and therefore regarded as a highly efficient tool for healthcare industry. Several IT systems have therefore found its way into the hospital industry, Hospital Information Systems (HIS) being one among them.

The healthcare industry although resilient to a degree is not immune from the developments in macro-economic environment. Tighter credit market conditions across the world have resulted in increased difficulty in securing finances necessary for capital purchases. Worldwide hospitals and healthcare providers were fraught with reimbursement pressures, lowered direct government spending due to constricted budgets, reduced demand and consumer spending on pharmaceuticals, and healthcare services (as a result of increased loss of corporate health coverage). Tight budgets, lack of credit and finances for capital purchases, declines in philanthropic donations, pushed hospitals and healthcare facilities into curtailing their expenses on the purchase of new equipment and upgradation of information infrastructure. Hospitals remained wary of their IT investments thereby squeezing opportunities for the global Hospital Information Systems market during the 2007-2009 recession period. Despite several benefits stacked in its favor and notwithstanding its sturdy value proposition from a technology standpoint, HIS implementations weakened due to the aforementioned macro- economic factors including the general strategy of “doing more with less” among hospitals. Difficulty in accessing capital from tax-exempt bonds made it difficult for hospitals to sustain profitability during the period, thereby affecting the ability to fund new IT infrastructure and upgrade existing infrastructure, thus throwing deployment of HIS onto the backburner until signs of an economic thaw. As a result, growth in the market hit a trough in the year 2009.