A new report by IDC Health Insights suggests that Electronic Health Records (EHR) adoption by American healthcare providers and small practices will reach 80 percent by the year 2016. Meaningful use incentives and privacy protections under the American Recovery Act (ARRA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) are expected to drive this growth spurt.
The report, IDC MarketScape: U.S. Ambulatory EMR/EHR for Small Practices 2012 Vendor Assessment, notes that the market for EHR systems is maturing rapidly, up from 25 percent adoption in 2009. Improvements in quality of care and increasing use of cloud computing and mobile devices are also seen as encouraging the shift to EHRs.
The IDC Health Insights report also warns that EHR technology can present challenges for small practices, which shouldn’t let meaningful use be the sole or primary deciding factor in choosing among products like Medisoft Clinical, Lytec MD, and Allscripts MyWay, EHR systems sold and supported by Microwize Technology.