Specialist vendors taking larger share of EMR market

The $23 billion EMR market once was dominated by large health IT firms, but specialized EMRs are gaining ground, according to a report from Kalorama Information.

Overall, the market is fragmented, with 52 percent of the market held by smaller and mid-size specialized companies, which is up from 42 percent last year. While these companies all gained some market share, McKesson, GE Healthcare and Siemens all lost ground in the market.

Epic, which specializes in EMRs, moved from fourth to third place in its market share estimates.

"Epic is making inroads into the market and will undoubtedly provide sustained competition for Cerner in this area. McKesson, although strong in the industry as a whole, seems to be losing hospital market share to some of the other companies more targeted in EMR," said Mary Ann Crandall, Kalorama analyst, in a statement.

The EMR market has no clear forerunner, and thus there is ample opportunity for entrants, especially with online services. Also, there appears to be room for additional mergers and acquisitions, according to Kalorama.

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