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[November 11, 2003]
Spyglass Consulting Says Mobile Computing Among Physicians Has Grown
According to a recent market study by the Spyglass Consulting Group, mobile computing usage among physicians has grown significantly over the past few years through the use of standalone, knowledge-based applications.
�Mobile computing usage, however, faces a significant number of obstacles to widespread adoption within inpatient hospital settings as the applications become more comprehensive and require increased integration with existing legacy-based clinical and financial systems,� said Gregg Malkary, Managing Director at the Spyglass Consulting Group.� Spyglass derived the content for this report from more than 100 in-depth interviews with practicing clinicians at leading healthcare institutions around the country.
The market for healthcare mobile devices, applications and services was approximately $50 million in 2002 composed primarily of standalone knowledge-based applications. The market is anticipated to grow significantly to $1.2 billion in 2006 with a CAGR of 120 percent. The growth over the next 4 to 5 years will be driven primarily by mobile applications that are tightly integrated with back office clinical and financial systems.
Key highlights of the report:
�Over 92 percent of the clinicians interviewed were affiliated with healthcare organizations that were using legacy-based systems complemented by inefficient paper-based processes and workflows. As a result, many of these organizations are under a significant amount of pressure to invest in clinical information systems to improve quality of care and patient safety, increase clinician productivity and reduce the risk of medical errors.
�Hospital administrators interviewed are facing a number of challenges in attempting to deploy next generation mobile solutions within an inpatient hospital setting including physician adoption, funding, integration complexities with legacy-based systems and protection of patient information on handheld devices.
�More than 90 percent of clinicians interviewed under the age of 35 use some form of reference application on a daily basis. Mobile computing is gaining momentum at many healthcare organizations around the country. Grass roots initiatives are inciting large numbers of medical clinicians to independently purchase handheld devices that are being used primarily for standalone, knowledge-based applications including drug reference databases, reference manuals, and medical calculators.
�Less than 5 percent of the organizations interviewed are deploying next generation mobile computing solutions. These solutions include e-prescribing, charge capture, and patient data management applications that are tightly integrated with existing legacy-based clinical and financial systems.
�E-prescribing has been slow to take off within inpatient hospital settings due to high initial deployment costs and lack of standards for electronically transmitting orders to a pharmacy. Approximately 15 percent of all paper prescriptions contain potential medication errors in which the patient receives the wrong drugs, an inappropriate dose of the correct drug, a drug to which they are allergic, or a drug that interacts with another drug they are taking.
�Charge capture applications are believed to be the next killer application because they deal directly with a clinician�s financial compensation. Nearly 40 percent of medical claims submitted by physicians are denied or reduced in amount.
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