Survey: No clear EMR market leader

Despite the presence of heavy hitters such as IBM, 3M and Dell, no single company owns the EMR market, according to a report from Kalorama Information.

It's been a year since the U.S. government announced incentives for physicians who implement and use EMR in their practices, yet the EMR market is wide open for more competition and new entrants, according to the Rockville, Md.-based healthcare market research publisher.

The EMR market is estimated at $13.8 billion in 2009, according to the report. However, Kalorama estimated that at least 70 percent of that represents sales to hospitals and health systems. Because of the scale of operation, capital and support needed to service hospitals, large IT companies such as McKesson, Cerner, Eclipsys and MediTech, which were doing business with these customers prior to the EMR incentives, have a fairly strong hold on that segment, Kalorama stated in a release.

The remainder of the market, consisting of sales to physician practices, is a smaller target, but holds more opportunity, according to Kalorama. The physician market represents a multitude of customers in various regional markets, which makes for a slower sales process, Kalorama said.

Allscripts, Epic, eClinicalworks, athenahealth and NextGen are among the leaders in sales to physicians, but no one company dominates the market, according to the report.

The trending toward EMR acquisition is fairly recent and vendors of billing software often offer a medical record module in conjunction with their product.

The report also indicated that brand recognition among physicians is fairly low: When doctors are surveyed, no brand outshines the others, and ratings of brands tend toward the middle range. However, both market share and brand awareness could rapidly change as some of the larger companies that entered the market in 2009 show results with their marketing efforts.

“No one has closed the deal for physician mindshare, at least not yet,” said Bruce Carlson, publisher of Kalorama Information. “And that is good news for companies that are considering entering the system with a product that has enhanced functionality.”

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