'Allscripsys' a one-off deal or a harbinger of more?
 | |
| Mary Stevens, Editor |
The purchase of Eclipsys by Allscripts might be a one-off deal that makes sense for both companies, but it’s also a significant consolidation in the $13.8 billion EMR market, according healthcare market researcher Kalorama Information. This is one health IT area that’s ripe for consolidation, with segmented markets, hundreds of players and no clear leader.
The merger is good for both companies. Allscripts has enviable name recognition in the physician EMR market, according to Kalorama. Allscripts ranks in the top three alongside Epic and GE Healthcare. With 180,000 physician clients, Allscripts is among the top sellers to physicians’ practices and post-acute organizations, but it has lacked entry into hospitals and large health systems market, according to Kalorama. The Eclipsys purchase brings with it nearly 1,500 hospital customers, and additional hospital and health systems market opportunities.
Allscripts/Eclipsys users on the AMDIS listserv were generally positive about the deal, citing the fact that many larger systems use Eclipsys for acute care and Allscripts on the ambulatory side, and as the companies mesh their technologies, this might lead to a clearer data integration path. However, as one poster pointed out, customer support might get lost in the shuffle at the enlarged company.
The competition is still there and the rush is on, both to stake claims and to create products that comply with meaningful use. As healthcare moves toward next-generation EMRs and EHRs, imaging informatics and enterprise hospital IT need to work together, learn from each other and leverage the expertise of other industries, said Paul Chang, MD, vice chairman of radiology informatics at University of Chicago Medical Center during the SIIM 2010 Dwyer Lecture.
Building better EMRs may not be one of the specified focuses of the VA Innovation Initiative, but reducing adverse drug events and telemedicine made the VAI2 list, and EMRs play a critical role in both. The VA’s initiative puts up $80 million to interest spur public and private companies, entrepreneurs, universities and nonprofits’ interest in creating “solutions in service to veterans.”
Beyond the impending requirements for meaningful use, what breakthroughs will revolutionize EMRs as we know them? Rest assured, with both federal initiatives and vendors’ drive to acquire customers and differentiate their products, there will be a lot to watch in the coming months.
Mary Stevens, Editor
mstevens@trimedmedia.com