Standards stimulate health IT market, say analysts

“The European healthcare IT market is set to experience steady growth, riding on the initiatives shown by regional and national health authorities," said Siddarth Saha, industry manager at Frost & Sullivan and author of the report.

“Some of the market segments poised for significant growth include the picture archiving and communications system (PACS)/RIS combination, the electronic medical record (EMR) system, physician order entry and prescribing systems."

Far from restricting growth, the drive in standardisation in individual countries is stimulating take-up and new products. Taking an overall view, as more IT vendors comply with government regulation, the systems integrate better and customers and clients receive more efficient products.

Rigid standards also encourage new companies to supply equipment and software to the market, as not only do they not have to design specific systems for each country but government funds may, in some case, be available for development. This is particularly true for North American healthcare IT companies, which have previous experience complying with regulations in their home continent.

Standards cited by the report include the International Standards Organisation (ISO) and the Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (DICOM). Although they are not necessarily interoperable nor used in all products, they sometimes also have the effect of making the public sector more accessible.

“Frost & Sullivan believes that complying with regulatory mandates is likely to provide a competitive advantage for healthcare systems vendors, local niche product and market specialists, as well as the global corporations," says Saha.