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Australian Hospital Information Systems Markets
Frost & Sullivan, March 2006
Increasing Realization of the Benefits of IT in Driving Efficiency Boosts the Hospital Information Systems Markets
With the growing demand for safer and improved healthcare, the healthcare industry in Australia is increasingly realizing the benefits of IT in actualizing better and more efficient patient care. Being a public-sector driven healthcare system, government initiatives to improve the efficiency of the healthcare delivery by adopting IT systems is expected to be the major driver for the Australian hospital information systems (HIS) markets. As examples of these initiatives, the Australian government has embarked on an ambitious project known as HealthConnect to build a national health information network. Likewise, HealthSMART is another program that has been initiated to modernize and replace the IT systems throughout the Victorian public healthcare.
This Frost & Sullivan research service is an analysis of the Australian hospital information systems markets. This research service is completely dedicated to the Australian market and identifies the major drivers and restraints in the hospital information systems (HIS) markets. Further, in a market that is transitioning from the adoption of administrative solutions to clinical solutions, it tracks the growth in terms of revenues of both the administrative and clinical systems market.
Strategic Shift in Healthcare IT Requirement Expected to Boost Market Growth
Hospitals in Australia are replacing legacy systems with sophisticated and integrated ones. Similarly, there is a strategic shift from the adoption of administrative systems to clinical systems and healthcare providers of various states and territories are looking at integrating their IT systems under programs such as the nation-wide electronic health records. Australia is slowly moving toward an integrated healthcare delivery structure, where healthcare agencies will be linked with each other, notes the analyst of this research service. Information systems are expected to play a vital role in this structure and there is likely to be an increased uptake of hospital information systems to allow seamless integration between the legacy and contemporary healthcare information systems.
Nevertheless, despite these positive developments, participants must remember that there has been chronic under-investment in healthcare IT in Australia, leading to the adoption of fragmented and inefficient information systems by the healthcare providers. Further, there is also a huge level of penetration of legacy systems in Australian hospitals and migration to packaged software could pose considerable challenges.
Market for Clinical Systems Holds High Growth Potential
With hospitals replacing low-quality patient administration and financial systems with standardized and integrated solutions, the administrative HIS segment currently accounts for a majority of the market revenues. However, public and private hospitals are now showing considerable interest in clinical solutions and health departments are expected to allocate more funds for the adoption of clinical systems. Consequently, there is growing interest in clinical systems such as radiology information systems (RIS), picture archiving and communications systems (PACS) and electronic medical records (EMR), which is expected to accelerate the growth of the overall Australian HIS markets.
Considering the shift toward integrating the IT systems, huge contracts are expected to be awarded in the Australian HIS markets in the coming years. With the health departments of various states and territories planning numerous IT initiatives during the next few years, vendors need to enhance client relationships through better customer service and scheduled project completion, says the analyst. Also, with the increasing demand for clinical solutions, developing solutions tailored to local needs is likely to evolve as a market necessity.
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