Health IT Market to Grow Apace

While the overall economy may well continue to sputter, the health IT market should be hitting on all cylinders over the next five years, a new industry report predicts.

One slice of the market, federal spending on health IT, is expected to grow from $4.5 billion in 2011 to $6.5 billion in 2016, for an annualized growth rate of 7.5 percent, according to a summary of the report, "Federal Health Information Technology Market, 2011-2016." The market report by Deltek, a Herndon, Va.-based software and information services provider, is available for purchase.

Key findings, according to the summary, include:

• Demand for mobility, telehealth, informatics, decision support, interoperability and common electronic health records will be driven by technology advances, potential long-term costs savings and improved patient outcomes.
• Aging EHRs operated by federal agencies "are overly ripe for major transformation."
• The federal government must transition from a "pay for service" model to a "pay for health" model that emphasizes outcomes.
• Health IT adoption is threatened by data security, program integrity, care coordination, political agendas and the federal deficit.