Winning in the Global (non-US) EMR Market

The Global (non-US) EMR Market Share Report is one of the more labor-intensive reports that KLAS publishes. Time zone differences, language barriers, and the sheer number of conducted validations equates to months of work. But for six years, the data in this report has been the best and most easily digestible global view to let providers know what is happening in the EMR market.

EMR market transparency allows provider organizations to choose vendors with the benefit of knowing what choices are being made by others in their communities, in their regions, and around the globe. For existing clients, that market transparency offers insights into whether your current EMR vendor is growing and keeping pace with the competition. Growth in market share reassures providers that your vendor will be there through the coming years to support a successful program.

It is important to note that growth in market share does not always correlate to high performance data. While it is a good starting point, when considering vendors, time will tell whether they can sustain potential growth while meeting the needs of their current customers.

A Substantial Increase in EMR Purchasing Decisions

In 2019, we saw more than a 50% increase in total EMR decisions than the previous year. This was very surprising, and these decisions were happening in nearly every region of the world. A strong economic year coupled with a desire for many organizations to go digital led many to choose their next generation platform. Most were choosing a system for the first time, but there were a few replacing their legacy best-of-breed systems.

We were also able to include new vendors in this year’s report. As KLAS’ brand recognition increases globally, we capture more and more decisions than ever before.

However, we predict a decline in the number of decisions in 2020. With the current global pandemic, organizations may halt their decision-making until things start to normalize.

Regional Decisions Run the World

This year’s report highlights the successes we are seeing regional vendors have throughout different markets. This trend differs from previous years where we saw enterprise vendors have a leg up. As many more countries and regions enter the digital world, the enterprise vendors may not be well known enough to spread into these emerging areas.

Organizations that explore options between enterprise and region-specific vendors will notice some key differences.

First, enterprise vendors tend to be more rigid in terms of how they deploy. It is a very heavy footprint, and in a lot of cases, these provider organizations are too small for that kind of deployment. They need something lighter and more flexible.

Second, pricing tends to be an issue for these enterprise vendors. Regional vendors are able to offer a lower price point and more concessions.

Which Vendors are Winning?

In Europe and Egypt, we saw health systems coming together to make country-wide or regional decisions. These consolidated decisions helped to reduce costs and ensure that organizations shared patient data efficiently. In Europe, region-specific vendors Softway Medical, Dedalus, Agfa HealthCare, and CompuGroup Medical saw the most energy. In Egypt, DXC Technology was awarded a pilot project as part of the country’s healthcare overhaul. This was the region’s largest decision, impacting five regions and 70 hospitals.

We saw a lot of regional energy in Brazil where MV and Phillips accounted for 75% of the net new 2019 wins. We also saw an uptick in decisions for the Asia and Oceania region.

Overall, we continue to see organizations update to the newest version of their vendor’s EMR. In the Global (Non-Us) EMR market share race, the incumbent vendor tends to have an advantage over the newcomer. However, MEDITECH sites in Canada don’t seem to have this clear-cut migration path; smaller organizations are choosing to migrate while large, multihospital organizations are choosing to move to Epic.

To see the complete list of winners in every region, check out the report.

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