MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – May 12, 2015 – An important driver of the rapid adoption of new digital health solutions by payers and providers is the need to better track and manage patients across acute, ambulatory and home care settings. While the use of electronic health records (EHRs) are critical to improving data capture, EHRs are often siloed data sources that lack the interoperability and functionality needed for full coordination and communication among dispersed patient care teams. Care Coordination Software refers to IT applications that are specifically designed to enable team-based patient care, particularly for at-risk patients with chronic conditions and for patients transitioning between care settings (e.g., hospital to home).
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Care Coordination Software: Overview and Outlook, 2014-2020, finds that IT solutions that enable various functions related to proactive patient care management are expected to grow significantly over the next six years.
“Care coordination is an expansion of the traditional care management function assumed mostly by payers,” said Frost & Sullivan Principal Connected Health Analyst Nancy Fabozzi. “Hospitals and physicians will increasingly look to deploy new IT to manage this function as they take on more risk, but key purchasing decisions for care coordination are likely to remain entrenched in the enterprise (e.g., health plans, IDNs, ACOs).
Care coordination software’s end-use applications span a wide range of health IT solutions, from rudimentary to robust. To enable team-based care and ensure smooth care transitions and efficient use of healthcare resources, care coordination software should be flexible and extensible, with corresponding accountability, transparency of information, and ability to provide analysis and reporting among key stakeholders.
The winners in this market will provide solutions with unified, secure and workflow-enabled platforms that can quickly identify and manage at-risk patients. Additionally, the solutions will enable care teams to implement and track care plans, engage patients in self-management, as well as provide closed-loop, 24/7 communication among all stakeholders, including patients and their families.
Frost & Sullivan forecasts the total market to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.1 percent between 2015 and 2020. Among the three key market segments addressed in the study, care coordination software deployed by physicians in ambulatory practice is expected to be the fastest growing, at a CAGR of 43.2 percent. It is followed by the hospital market segment at a CAGR of 33.2 percent. Although the largest revenue for 2014 belonged to the healthcare payers segment, this segment is expected to grow more slowly than the other segments with a CAGR of 21.5% over for the forecast period.
“In the next six years, the digital health market is likely to experience a continuous flurry of new products and services specifically designed to help smooth the pain points associated with transitioning from fee-for-service,” according to Fabozzi. “The move to value-based reimbursement is already a key driver for health IT, and efforts toward developing solutions for care coordination and population health management will accelerate significantly.”
Care Coordination Software: Overview and Outlook, 2014-2020 is part of the Connected Health
Growth Partnership Service program, which also includes research in the following markets: health information exchange, health data analytics, telehealth, emerging wireless technologies, acute care information systems, enterprise clinical information systems and billing and revenue cycle management systems. All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.
