When there are a lot of people in need of medical attention, there is a need for the digitization of healthcare to cope with the ever-increasing patient count. All the people seeking medical attention need to be provided with a diagnosis and prescriptions. In this ever-changing world, there is havoc created by chronic diseases. Between the years 2000 and 2030, Americans having chronic conditions will go up by 37%, an upsurge of 46 million persons.
It is a given that older people are in more need of medical assistance, as they are more prone to succumb to all kinds of health issues. The EHR market will continue to rise with the rising number of the elderly population. As per WHO, the elderly people will rise to 22% in 2050, approximately doubling the value of 125 in the year 2015. 80% of the older population will live in low-income countries.
In India, there is a system called e-hospital advanced for usage in dispensaries and hospitals across the nation, currently operational in approximately 50 hospitals. Likewise, to mechanize various procedures, AIIMS has applied an IT solution. It is correspondingly working to develop additional modules and other organizations are trying to imitate it. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued rules for EHR standards. Together with this, it is in the procedure of generating the National e-Health Authority, which will care for standards-related matters and likewise revise other protocols to cope with the matter.
The paybacks of EHR in epidemiology are another main factor for the development of the growth of the EHR market. For example, the FDA has requested over $100 million, for an EHR initiative, to assess the safety of the drugs controlled by it, as EHR allows researchers to analyze data. Additionally, with the use of this system, healthcare workers and patients can have an idea of the present drug development stage and clinical trials and outcomes that were attained from formerly accomplished trials.
Worldwide, North America had the highest demand for EHR in the past and the trend is continuing in the current scenario as well. This has a lot to do with the growth in its elderly population and the upsurge in the consciousness about the significance of EHRs in healthcare settings. The U.S will be the leader of the industry in the region. With scientific developments and the inclusion of AI, the demand for EHR has grown leaps and bounds.
Emerging economies like India and China have a huge growth potential in the industry, as APAC is seeing the rapid acceptance of these systems. This growth is also because of the investments in healthcare by, public and private enterprises. Furthermore, numerous developing countries have a large population, and with the snowballing occurrence of chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, and CVDs, the high volume of patient data has to be managed. All these factors together will generate the demand for EHR solutions, for efficiently managing patient information.
The demand for EHR systems is rolling because of the increasing elderly population and the government initiatives for the same.