Report: Cardiac IT market gaining momentum

Sep 23, 2010

In contrast to the saturated market for information technology in radiology, the cardiology IT market is experiencing healthy growth, according to a new report from healthcare technology research and advisory firm CapSite.

The Williston, VT-based firm surveyed 300 U.S. hospitals and found that 40% of respondents had purchased a cardiology IT system between 2008 and 2010. And 25% are planning to purchase a new system within the next years.

"If you look at planned activity, not only in 2010 but in the next 18 months, it seems to be a pretty attractive market," said Gino Johnson, CapSite vice president.

In notable trends, vendor organizations are trying to articulate a product strategy that spans the various cardiology silos, Johnson said.

"Whether it be in the [echocardiography] or cath area, looking at this opportunity that exists for a more integrated or one-stop shop to address your cardiology IT needs, that's one of the things that we clearly see is emerging from vendors," he said.

Of the participating hospitals in the survey, 123 had fewer than 200 beds, 95 had 200 to 400 beds, and 57 had more than 400 beds.

One-third of the hospitals with fewer than 200 beds purchased a cardiology IT system between 2008 and 2010, compared with 52% of hospitals with 200 to 400 beds and 37% of hospitals with more than 400 beds.

Of those that acquired their cardiology IT systems in that time period, 27 did so in 2008, 29 acquired their system in 2009, and 29 purchased their systems just in the first half of 2010.

"The market is picking up really nicely relative to 2009," he said.

In a surprising finding, only 18% of hospitals said that their purchase was part of a larger enterprise clinical purchase that included an electronic health record, CapSite said.

"Our expectation was that this would have been higher," Johnson said. "If you think about what's happened not only in the last 18 to 24 months, but with the administration's [Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act] and the focus around meaningful use, more and more of these enterprise clinical decisions are including increasing scope into other ancillary departments, [such as] RIS and PACS in some cases. So to find that less than 20% of cardiology IT decisions [were part of an enterprise clinical purchase] was definitely surprising."

2010 09 23 14 08 28 738 Slide8 Capsite Cardiac It 350

Primary cardiology IT vendor. All images courtesy of CapSite.

Not much variation was found in terms of purchasing plans depending on hospital size. Thirty-five percent of hospitals with fewer than 200 beds planned to purchase a cardiology IT system in the next two years, while 38% of hospitals with 200 to 400 beds and 24% of hospitals with more than 400 beds did.

Institutions planning to buy a cardiology IT system:

Within the next six months: 9
Within 6 to 12 months: 21
Within 13 to 18 months: 19
More than 18 months: 13

Institutions not planning to buy a new cardiology IT solution had a variety of reasons for their decision, according to the report. The most popular -- that they had no problems with their current solution -- was cited by 42% of respondents.

Twenty-four percent had recently purchased their current package, while 14% mentioned budget issues. Seven percent were planning to upgrade their current system, 5% reported that other IT systems are a higher priority, and 3% were still researching the marketplace. For 3% of respondents, cardiac cases were not their primary business, and 2% utilize a shared system with another facility or department.

Opinions also varied regarding the top attributes of cardiology IT systems that are most important to their organization, according to the report.