Monday, December 06, 2004

Data Storage Management Solutions Essential to Meet HIPAA Recommendations

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Healthcare facilities in the United States are currently in a rush to meet the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) deadline for security compliance. Data storage management solutions are likely to play a key role in preparing these facilities to meet the HIPAA recommendations regarding keeping patient record in a timely, secure, and organized manner.


New analysis from Frost & Sullivan ( www.healthcare.frost.com ), Data Storage Management Markets for U.S. Healthcare Settings, reveals that revenue in this industry totaled $845.2 million in 2004 for storage hardware solutions, and projects to reach $1,329.6 million in 2008.

The market is already showing a marked increase in IT spending on security system upgrades. Investment in picture archiving and communication systems (PACS), electronic medical records (EMR), and computerized physician order entry (CPOE) solutions expects to be among the top priorities.

"With efficient storage solutions playing the supporting role to clinical information solutions, storage vendors should continue increasing their focus on this area," says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Natesh Subbarajagupta Kare.

For successful implementation, storage vendors have to coordinate not only with HIPAA consultants, but also with providers of clinical information systems, right from the product development stage. They can also conduct pilot projects at the healthcare centers to check security compliance.

Most of the demand for high storage requirements expects to come from medical images, patient records, and hospital administration-related data. In fact, the healthcare data is increasing by more than four times every two years.

Since data types are not homogeneous, integration between digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) and extensible mark-up language (XML) standards plays an important role for successful implementation.

"Healthcare settings encounter one of the most data-intensive environments, and hence, high scalability at very low costs is anticipated to be a key differentiation factor for storage management solutions," emphasizes Natesh Kare.

Given the capacity and complexity of data management, vendors need to be meticulous about positioning their storage solutions. Marketing and direct sales staff should adopt a 'push' marketing strategy for larger facilities so that they understand the capabilities of enterprise storage solutions in analyzing, estimating, and forecasting patient turnover in each department.

Vendors must also aim for full responsibility in maintaining data integrity and availability. This will enable them to win long-term maintenance contracts and realize more opportunities in healthcare markets.

Data Storage Management Markets for U.S. Hospitals, part of the Healthcare and Life Sciences IT subscription, evaluates the key trends and developments in the data storage management market. It also analyzes opportunities and challenges with respect to the storage hardware and software segments and provides strategies to assist participants in increasing the uptake of data storage management solutions in healthcare markets. Executive summaries and interviews are available to the press.

Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, has been partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies for more than 40 years. Its advisory expertise integrates growth consulting, growth partnership services and corporate management training to identify and develop opportunities for clients. While serving clientele ranging from virtually every Global 1000 to emerging companies, Frost & Sullivan's comprehensive industry coverage includes a global perspective of all vertical and horizontal industries. Its unique coverage combines ongoing analysis of markets, technologies, econometrics, and demographics. For more information, visit www.frost.com

Data Storage Management Markets for U.S. Healthcare Settings


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Keywords in this release: data storage management, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, HIPAA, clinical information systems, storage hardware and software, digital imaging and communications in medicine, DICOM, picture archiving and communications systems, PACS, extensible mark-up language, XML, electronic medical records, EMR, computerized physician order entry, CPOE, scalable storage solutions, research, information, market, trends, technology, service, forecast, market share, network attached storage, NAS, storage area network, SAN, direct attached storage, DAS, redundant array of inexpensive disks, RAID, Tape libraries, Tape, storage software, hierarchical storage management, HSM, archive, backup and recovery, HL7, local area network, LAN, electronic health records, EHR, continuity of care records, CCR, internet SCSI, iSCSI, integrated delivery networks, IDN.