A Medical Device Daily

Volunteer work group members for the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (Chicago), nearly 100 strong, gathered in Chicago last week to begin development of expanded certifications for the commission's 2009 certification program.

Mark Leavitt, MD, PhD, commission chair, reviewed the program's progress with the volunteers, telling them that more than half of the electronic health record products certified in 2007 were from new vendors that had not sought the CCHIT seal previously. According to data covering ambulatory (office-based) and inpatient (hospital) electronic health record (EHR) products, both large and small vendors continue to seek out certification of EHR software products, and the market remains open to new entrants.

"The record participation at this year's first face-to-face volunteer meeting and the sustained interest we are seeing from product vendors points to a healthy, growing health IT certification program," said Leavitt. "This level of enthusiasm is particularly encouraging as we begin new development in behavioral health and personal health records (PHRs) for the '09 program."

CCHIT has certified a total of 136 ambulatory products from 93 healthcare IT vendors since 2006, representing nearly 50% of the estimated vendors in the ambulatory EHR market. Some 55% of the 47 ambulatory products certified during the 2007 program year, which ended June 30, came from newly participating vendors, indicating that EHR market competition from growing, innovating companies continues.

Of the companies certified in the 2006 program, almost all chose to maintain their product certification's three-year term, with 24% bringing new products for an updated certification in 2007.

CCHIT also reported key data concerning the 2007 companies' annual revenues and size of practices served: 57% of certified ambulatory vendors reported annual revenues under $10 million; 34% had annual revenues of less than $1 million; the remaining 43% reported annual revenues greater than $10 million. Practice sizes of two to five physicians are served by the majority of 2007 certified ambulatory products, with 62% also serving solo physician offices.

In its first year of certifying inpatient products, CCHIT certified an estimated 58% of vendors in the marketplace. Among certified inpatient EHR vendors, 62% had annual revenues of more than $100 million, 23% reported annual revenues of less than $20 million, and the remaining 15% reported annual revenues from $20 million to $100 million.

The results indicate that systems for smaller hospitals were well represented, with the majority of certified products reporting customers in the 151-to-300 bed range, and 54% also serving hospitals with less than 150 beds.

"These statistics continue to show that certification is stimulating a diverse and competitive marketplace for health IT," said Alisa Ray, executive director of the certification commission. "With more than half of the certified products in 2007 coming from new vendors even though the criteria were significantly more rigorous this year any concerns about creating barriers to innovation have been put to rest. And smaller offices and hospitals have plenty of certified products from which to choose."