Mary-Louise Hoffman
A new Deltek report predicts federal spending on health information technology products and services will grow from $4.3 billion in fiscal 2014 to $4.8 billion in fiscal 2019.
Deltek said Thursday the aging population, high medical costs and new healthcare programs for active-duty military as well as veterans are projected to drive federal HIT investment in the coming years.
Industry could identify business opportunities as more federal agencies seek to adopt electronic health record systems, analytics, cloud computing and decision support systems, the report states.
The research firm expects the departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense and Health and Human Services to invest heavily on IT programs aimed at increasing access to healthcare.
“Much of the focus moving forward will be on data-driven decision making to achieve healthcare goals, which will drive adoption of analysis and visualization tools to help gain greater insight into both business operations and patient care,†said Kyra Fussell, a Deltek research analyst.
Deltek forecasts that the departments of State and Agriculture as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, Social Security Administration and Office of Personnel Management will look to data analysis technology to monitor geographic health trends.
The report noted federal HIT programs in the coming years would have to address the challenges associated with system interoperability and security.
