Global HIS/EMR vendor nightmare outside US

No credible large health IT company present in this sector today.
Unique confluence of events resulting in ALL major global health IT companies undergoing major transformations or facing business challenges or not focused on this geography today.
Service companies not stepping up to fill the vacuum, including global IT service vendors.
Private sector CEO’s/CIO’s, in this sector, grappling with - ‘which system / vendor do I select now’?
Public sector and Governments losing faith after spectacular global failures.
Market is, competitively, extraordinarily open to all. No single vendor today has significant credibility, or has the business focus or currently has the scale / resources required to be the leader in this market.

• Google withdraws Google Health Platform
• Microsoft shuts down Amalga outside US
• Microsoft downsizes Health Vault globally
• Cerner shies away from expanding Internationally
• Cerner and iSoft penalized in NHS projects
• iSoft acquired by CSC – Cultural conflict between product and service cultures imminent.
• TrakHealth acquired by Intersystems – product portfolio conflict within Intersystems
• Epic, McKesson, Eclipsys/Allscripts, GE – almost exclusively US focused. Looking outside the US only on special request and on an exception basis.
• Similar scenario in established Indian Health IT product companies eg Napier Healthcare struggling to scale up.
• IBM, Accenture – shutting down generic HIS/EMR/LIS/RIS service practices.
• Infosys, Wipro, TCS – downsizing , struggling or moving away from healthcare IT services.. Struggling with Productization strategy even in Indian health IT sector alone.
• FCG and Covansys acquired by CSC – no further progress on their deep healthcare research capabilities.
• ACS acquired by Xerox; Perot acquired by Dell - Cultural conflict between hardware and service cultures imminent.

On a short-term to medium-term, Quarter-by-Quarter cycle basis, Healthcare IT always looses out on financial ROI as compared to any other industry vertical. Whereas on a long-term 7-10 year horizon, Healthcare IT gives sustained returns because it is a recession proof industry. However this doesn't fit in with the typical 3-5 year investment cycles.

** Disclaimer: All this information is based on a combination of our collective consulting experiences, knowledge of the healthcare industry, published news articles and our own analysis. We are posting it here just as a consultant's opinion without any prejudices. -- Dr Pankaj Gupta, Dr R Balaji.