It appears that the US eHealth market is heating up.
Although 2008 was worst year in the past seven years for clinical information system sales, market research firm KLAS predicts that “”Next year will be a boom year, and so will the next””. This growth will be largely driven by financial incentives from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Mark, do you see any similar increase in eHealth sales in Canada? What will be the impact of the $500M investment announced in the last budget for Infoway? Will the eHealth “scandal” have an opposite impact to ARRA in the US?
Mike
eHealth Musings 
Hi All,
It is nice to be back from vacation and back to all things eHealth. An interesting article and observation on the US market Michael. I would have to agree that the US market is really starting to heat up.
I wish I could say the same thing about the Canadian market. Outside of EMR guys who are certified in a provincial program, I am not seeing much activity in Canada. BC (where I live is a good example) deficits from the downturn are causing huge cutbacks in services and in eHealth spending, especially at the acute level. There are some opportunities for some big centralized deals, if the ROI is significant but the market in general seems to me very flat or declining. A major contribution to this stale market seems to be the continuing eHealth debacle and the effect this is having on others. It appears to me that, eHealth Ontario has something to do with the delay in Canada Health Infoway getting the promised $500M.
All of this is rather depressing, as you see the Australians, the US, and other jurisdictions significantly ramping up eHealth investment. Don’t be surprised if you see some of the CDN eHealth talent head outside the country if given half an opportunity.
Mark
Interesting observation regarding talent heading south. Has happened before … witness the Canadian aerospace industry. We already buy a significant percentage of health IT applications from US vendors. Why not send our talent south as along with our $’s? 🙂
I continue to be amazed at the buzz in the US. I think that one reason is the very high level support (e.g. President Obama) that eHealth in the US currently enjoys. Right now the word “eHealth” seems to be quickly becoming synonymous with “scandal” *sigh*
Mike