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INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana's health IT sector, which includes more than 72 growing technologies along with health plans, life sciences companies, academic institutions, philanthropic organizations and state government, has bolstered the state’s healthcare and economy, according to a new report.
The report “From Dishwashers to Digital Medical Records – Indiana’s Leadership in Health Information Technology,” was prepared by BioCrossroads, the state’s initiative for investment, development and advancement of the state's signature life sciences strengths, and was released last month at HIMSS11 in Orlando.
The report lists 72 startups, 2,500 workers and $202 million in company revenues as evidence of the progress of Indiana's health information technology innovation cluster. It defines, for the first time, the HIT cluster as a specific sector of life sciences economic activity in Indiana, analyzing core assets and documenting a decade-long story of steady growth.
"Indiana is at the forefront when it comes to the delivery of better healthcare through the use of better information," said David Johnson, president and CEO of BioCrossroads. "This report is the first place that has staked out the fast-growing field of HIT as a worthy life sciences sector all on its own and a driver of economic growth as well as higher quality healthcare."
The report also points out the difference effective philanthropy can make in driving new opportunities, noting the more than $115 million in philanthropic grants that have put Indiana and its well-known research institutions (such as the Regenstrief Institute) on the national map for leading HIT research and entrepreneurial development.
A recent analysis by IBM predicts the total U.S. market for health IT products and services will grow annually at a rate of nearly 6 percent and reach $42 billion by 2014, "a growth rate that is among the fastest in any industry."
Indiana HIT companies stand to capitalize on this trend, according to BioCrossroads. In 2008 (the most recent year for which data is available), the collective revenues of these companies totaled $202 million, an increase of 125 percent over $90 million reported in 1998, and coinciding with the rise of Indiana's multiple health information exchange networks.
Information services/software development businesses claim 58 percent of the sector's jobs, while consulting jobs claim 27 percent of the employment numbers and electronic medical record companies/health information exchanges have 15 percent of the HIT workforce. Overall, health IT jobs have grown 61 percent over the past five years.
Two examples of these Indiana-based businesses are Medical Informatics Engineering, a wWeb-based EHR provider, and its wholly owned subsidiary, NoMoreClipboard.com, a personal health record management systems company.
Launched in 1995, MIE built and still operates one of the first health information exchanges providing clinical messaging services to the northern Indiana medical community. MIE also developed a full portfolio of Web-based electronic health record products used by clients ranging from solo physician practices to Fortune 500 employee health organizations such as Google, Lilly and Dow Chemical. MIE's "minimally invasive" approach to EHR implementation has helped differentiate the company from other EHR systems that are often expensive and inflexible, and has positioned the company as an EHR leader in the fragmented HIT industry, according to BioCrossroads.
As quality of patient care increasingly became an issue in the healthcare industry, MIE launched NoMoreClipboard.com. That company has developed one of the leading personal health record systems in the country, due to its interoperability with various EHR technologies, health systems and hospitals and ability to put patients at the center of their healthcare, says BioCrossroads.
The report’s title references Indiana entrepreneur Sam Regenstrief, who transformed the appliance industry by integrating digital controls into dishwashers. In the late 1960s he established a charitable foundation, the Regenstrief Foundation, and the Regenstrief Institute at Indiana University to study the extension of digital technology to the healthcare sector, allowing digital information to transform the delivery of healthcare by tracking and storing patient information via electronic networks.
Today, the Regenstrief Institute and its clinical data repository, the Indiana Network for Patient Care, represent one of the largest and fastest growing clinical research engines in the world.
BioCrossroads worked with the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business to collect and analyze financial information in the report.
