MaSSSoftech

The Healthcare Information Technology market in Southeast Asia, China, Japan and Australia (APAC) grew nearly 12 percent annually between 2005 and 2008, according to new data published by international research hub Frost & Sullivan.


Although the APAC HIT market represents currently only 2.1 percent of the total healthcare market worldwide, Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) estimates it grew to $5 billion in 2008. That’s a figure could double if not triple that in the next 10 years, the research firm contends.

And when that happens, these regions will see significant improvements in patient safety and efficiency – plus a reduction in adverse events caused by human error.

“The HIT is here to stay with even more ubiquitous presence in all aspects of healthcare delivery systems,” said Dr. Pawel Suwinski, a Frost & Sullivan senior consultant who covers the APAC market. “Moreover, it will be the main factor and driver in the transformation of healthcare industry towards translation care by providing common collaboration platform for information processing and exchange between related sciences and industries.”

In recent years, healthcare organizations have set aside substantially more money on computer technologies, Suwinski notes. In fact, the health-care industry is now one of the major consumers of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) products and services. As more APAC healthcare organizations upgrade their equipment and adopt new computer-based technologies, analysts say preventable human errors – those external and internal variables that can affect the quality of care – will drop off.

"Fifty percent of the medical practice activities can be controlled,” Suwinski says. “The remaining 50 percent depends solely on human judgment and cognitive functions that when unfavorable conditions are present could lead to substandard care.”

Frost & Sullivan noted that the implementation of HIT can improve the quality of care by providing up to 80 percent better control in the medical setting.

One caveat: While decreasing the legal risks of traditional medical practices, the use of HIT introduces legal implications. For example, a hospital might become the subject of corporate negligence action if they violate the standard of care (perhaps through inadequate oversight of staff physicians) by allowing an electronic health record or other technology to be used in such a way to cause harm to patients.

However, this kind of snafu can be avoided by taking proper preventative measures, Suwinski notes. These include as training staff to ensure efficient use of new systems, documenting all information thoroughly, and preventing alterations to records without proper documentation.

Follow ITEXPO (News - Alert) on Twitter: twitter.com/itexpo