NEW YORK – The market for electronic medical record data transfer equipment and applications, valued at $575 million in 2008, is forecast to reach $1.6 billion in 2013, according to a study by research firm Kalorama Information.
Driven by the growing use of EMRs in hospitals and physician offices, this segment of the patient monitoring market will grow 23.3 percent annually through 2013, notes the report, “High-Tech Patient Monitoring Systems Markets (Remote and Wireless Systems, Data Processing, EMR Data Transfer).”
Increased use of EMRs and high-tech patient monitoring systems is a key piece of President Barack Obama’s plan to fix the ailing healthcare system, the report notes, because they have the potential to improve patient outcomes and satisfaction, provide cost savings and more efficient use of healthcare resources and reduce hospitalizations.
Patient monitoring produces a vast amount of data, but this data can be disjointed and located in different places, Kalorma notes. EMRs give patients and physicians greater freedom, improves accuracy and should result in better outcomes as critical records are all in one easily transportable record. http://ping.fm/IqBbX