UK Electronic Health Records Market Analysis

UK Electronic Health Record Market Executive Summary

The UK Electronic Health Record market size was valued at $736 Bn in 2022 and is estimated to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2% from 2022 to 2030 and will reach $862 Mn in 2030. The United Kingdom has a National Health Service (NHS) that provides healthcare to all citizens. The NHS is primarily funded by taxes and national insurance contributions. As of 2021, the UK's healthcare expenditure as a percentage of GDP is around 9.9%. This is relatively low compared to other developed countries. However, the NHS is also known for its efficiency and high quality of care.

The electronic health record (EHR) is a digital version of a patient’s medical records. EHRs are patient-centered and real-time records that make patient data available instantly and securely to authorized healthcare professionals. It contains the patient's medical history, medications, allergies, treatment plans, diagnoses, immunization dates, radiology images, and laboratory test results. Thus, the increasing adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) is expected to create a significant demand for electronic health records (EHR) in the coming years, which is further anticipated to drive the electronic health record (EHR) market.

The United Kingdom has a National Health Service (NHS) that provides healthcare to all citizens. The NHS has been working towards the implementation of a national electronic health record (EHR) system for many years. The main objective of the EHR system is to provide a comprehensive record of a patient's health information that can be accessed by authorized healthcare providers across the NHS. This will help to improve the continuity of care and to reduce the risk of errors. Hence, due to government support the EHR market will be rising during the forecast period in the UK.

Market Dynamics

Market Growth Drivers

Technological advancements in healthcare offer a promising future for enhancing healthcare delivery through electronic health records. Natural language processing software is a speech recognition software that enables enhancing interaction with electronic health records. This technology enables the physician to save valuable time and be available for the patients at a given precise time.

Predictive analytics methods use modelling, statistics, and data mining in coordination with artificial intelligence (AI), for better clinical outcomes based on electronic health records for improving care delivery and improving better patient experience.

Large hospitals are seeing benefits from EMR implementation and integration with their core operations. Through the value chain, the streamlining of the process decreases or stops revenue leaks. By lowering administrative costs and improving data accuracy, long-term EMR use will result in cost savings. Doctors are able to treat patients more effectively with the use of EMR thanks to easy and accurate data accessibility. Clinical data gathering at the time of care increases productivity and boosts data quality. The regulatory agencies and pharmaceutical corporations use the data gathered to enhance the PMS (post-marketing surveillance) of medications. Considering all these factors the UK EHR market will grow in the coming years.

The introduction of EMRs and their integration with large hospitals' core operations are paying off. The process's simplification reduces or halts revenue leaks throughout the value chain. Long-term usage of EMR will reduce costs by enhancing data accuracy and reducing administrative costs. Thanks to easy and precise data accessibility provided by EMR, doctors can treat patients more successfully. Clinical data collection during patient treatment improves productivity and data quality. The information gathered is used by pharmaceutical companies and regulatory bodies to improve post-marketing surveillance (PMS) of drugs. The UK EHR market will expand in the upcoming years in light of all these considerations.

Market Restraints

At the turn of the century, the health records of UK citizens were often held locally, with the result that there was no coordinated system. "Although electronic health records (EHRs) are widely viewed as central to modernizing the organization and delivery of sustainable, high-quality healthcare, the uptake of such records in hospitals has tended to be slow. Approaches to the deployment of EHRs vary from home-grown systems in single organizations with the necessary technical and managerial capacity; to interoperability standards for linking multiple information technology (IT) systems; to top-down, government-driven, and national implementations of standardized, commercial software applications.

Competitive Landscape

Key Players

• InPS
• System C & Graphnet Health
• TPP
• DocEngage Informatics
• Gem3s Technologies
• NovoCura Tech   Health Services
• Practo Technologies
• Cerner Healthcare  
• Epic Systems
• Allscripts
• McKesson
• Meditech
• Athenahealth
• NextGen Healthcare
• GE Healthcare
• Drchrono

Healthcare Policies and Regulatory Landscape

In 2002, the UK government launched the development of the National Programme for Information Technology (NPfIT) NHS Care Records Service, which was intended to deliver an electronic health records system containing patient records from across the UK. There were problems with poor user requirements analysis, the failure to address patient confidentiality, overambitious timescales, and enormous cost overruns. It was eventually closed down in 2011 as part of the dismantling of the NPfIT programme.

The UK government chose the top-down, government-driven approach: a "nationwide implementation of EHRs, known as the NHS Care Records Service, is the cornerstone of the $13.34 Bn National Programme for Information Technology (NPfIT)". This very ambitious approach required enormous resources. "In order to begin the process of creating a system that supports health IT for the entire nation, the UK with the help of four companies including the US-based company, the Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), began one of the largest and ambitious health IT projects that the world had ever seen in early 2002... NPfIT attempted to create a national EHR system for the entire UK. It was a project that would eliminate the challenges of interoperability between various competitive EHR systems around the UK." The initiative came to an end in 2011. "Launched in 2002 and officially dismantled in 2011, NPfIT included the first sustained national attempt to introduce centrally-procured EHR systems across the NHS's hospitals, including mental health settings."