In a recent interview with Digital Health News, Alison MacDonald, senior vice president and global lead for EHR implementation at Nordic Consulting, shared her insights on the UK electronic patient record (EPR) market. She highlighted that the market will not be dominated by a single system, but there will be a trend towards consolidation.
Nordic Consulting, known for its strategic partnership with health leaders worldwide, assists in navigating complexity and leveraging technology to build healthier systems and businesses. Macdonald’s role involves overseeing end-to-end EPR implementation, including input in business case development and ensuring that the clinician voice is heard, drawing from her clinical nursing background and extensive experience working with major EPR vendors.
MacDonald emphasized that the UK EPR market is dynamic, with an increasing number of suppliers and vendors similar to other global markets. She mentioned that vendors from North America, having matured their products, are capable of offering a suite of functionalities that could potentially dominate the market.
Despite the potential for dominance by certain vendors, MacDonald suggested that multiple organizations could use the same EPR system, leading to consolidation rather than a single dominant system in the UK. She also highlighted the importance of optimization, adoption, and data quality for EPR deployment.
Looking ahead, MacDonald predicted a focus on cloud and hosting in the UK EPR market, similar to trends in more mature markets globally. She anticipates innovative uses of data, including AI and research, to solve clinical problems within the healthcare sector.
Overall, MacDonald’s insights indicate that the UK EPR market is evolving towards consolidation and greater utilization of technological advancements to drive healthcare improvements.
