KLAS: HIE software market is crowded, muddled

Even though health information exchange has been around for a while, the market for HIE technology remains crowded, with no real dominant players, a new KLAS Enterprises report shows, suggesting that vendors have a long way to go to earn the confidence of potential customers.

In a survey of 95 provider organizations, respondents named an astounding 38 different vendors they were considering for HIE technology. But only five vendors were being considered by at least 10 percent of those providers, KLAS reports. Potential customers considered Medicity in 23 percent of purchasing decisions, while Axolotl was on the list of 22 percent of respondents. McKesson's RelayHealth, Informatics Corp. of America (ICA) and Epic Systems also were considered more than 10 percent of the time, but, KLAS notes, most of those seriously interested in Epic were looking for Epic-to-Epic connections.

"[H]ealthcare providers are faced with an unfamiliar and complex frontier where competitors must became partners while HIE solutions are yet in their infancy," KLAS says.

"The sheer number of HIE vendors vying for provider mindshare makes finding the right solution uniquely challenging," adds report author Jason Hess, according to Healthcare IT News. "Technology, cost and integration were the selection criteria most often mentioned by prospective buyers, but evaluating those factors is especially difficult when most HIE vendors can point to only a handful of live deployments."

KLAS also breaks down HIEs into three different management structures: public, cooperative and private HIEs.

To learn more:
- have a look at this Healthcare IT News story
- order the report from KLAS