Lists, Grids and Quadrants
Our Next Installment in a Continuing Series on Healthcare IT PR Tactics and Strategies
Industry analyst relations are always a popular topic, one which I've blogged on before. With the New Year underway, vendors look forward to the industry analyst leadership grids, wondering how they can get good placement on them. In this post, we'll look at the top three grids. In part two we'll look at how to get good grid position.
Gartner's Magic Quadrant is the best known, followed by Forrester's Wave. IDC has sporadic leadership grids; the Health Industry Insights group will be starting "Short Lists" soon. These highly coveted reports rank IT solutions using detailed technical standards, end-user feedback and analyst opinion. Excluded from this discussion are the popular survey-based KLAS rankings (arguably more valuable than all the analyst grids put together) and juried best-in-show contests from the likes of TEPR and HIMSS.
According to Gartner, the Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace. Gartner is careful to say the quadrant does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted (and relationship between paid clients of Garner and rankings is purely coincidental ;) Similarly, they coyly do not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant.
A list of Magic Quadrants to be published in '08 is here. In October there was a Magic Quadrant for U.S. Enterprise CPR, and the previous year a Quadrant for U.S. Physician Office Systems. Check with analysts, as the Quadrant schedule isn't always final.
The Forrester Wave is similar in intent but more interactive and, I think, useful. Forrester says their Forrester Wave is a detailed analysis of vendors' products and services based on "transparent, fully accessible criteria." It includes an Excel spreadsheet that allows you to easily compare products and get in-depth data and analysis about each one. In addition, there are tools to develop a custom shortlist based on your company's requirements.
For a schedule of upcoming Forrester Waves click here.
Check with analysts however, as some healthcare topics aren't on this though they may be covered.
A recent example of a Forrester Wave is their Jan. 17, 2008, Healthcare Claims Platforms Q1 2008. To continue reading about this and Health Industry Insights/IDC's Short List, click the "Continue Reading" link.
This report and Wave is by analysts Carlton Doty, Eric Brown and Brendan McGowan. The executive summary: Following significant consolidation in the healthcare claims platform space over the past two years, Forrester evaluated eight products among the remaining four leading vendors across 61 criteria. TriZetto and DST Health Solutions are Leaders, thanks to their flexible benefits design capabilities and consumer-directed health (CDH) focus. IT services firms Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and Perot Systems remain competitive with their core claims engine workhorses and sound technology strategies, but they lack standout features like pre-integrated CDH adapters, which both vendors say will be addressed later this year via strategic partnerships. Overall, differentiation in this mature market is less about the actual claims processing capabilities and more about complementary functionality like flexibility in benefits design, CDH administration, and integrated health management.
Health Industry Insights is starting a Short List program for inpatient systems and ambulatory EMRs. Analyst Judy Hanover wrote about it in a recent newsletter:
"EMRs clearly rank as one of the top priorities for adoption by providers in 2008. In a Health Industry Insights (HII) survey conducted in 3Q07, over 30% of CIOs responding said they expect spending on EMRs to grow by more than 10% in 2008. In response to the demand for a fact-based, quantitative assessment of vendor-supplied EMR systems for inpatient and ambulatory environments, HII has kicked off the EMR Short List.
The Short List criteria is designed to carefully weigh the pros-and-cons of different technologies, service and delivery models alongside configurability, comprehensive functionality and the ever-changing requirements of providers. In beginning this research we expected to have to narrow the list of suppliers down and make some tough decisions about which vendors to include. But when identifying the vendors to include in the short list, more than 100 candidates emerged. The vast number of suppliers is a consequence of the diversity of the market, varying definitions of the EMR, its functionality and its role in the healthcare institution, as well as the size, goals, budgets and sophistication of the purchasers.
The basic functions of an EMR provide the electronic equivalent of the paper medical record, however, the role of an EMR is to go far beyond, leveraging the information contained in the record to create a foundation for achieving long-term value through improved quality, better decision making and, ultimately, reduced costs for all. The minimum functionality of an EMR for the inpatient setting is generally considered to include secure access, computerized patient order entry for medication, tests and radiology, and medication administration functionality including the decision support and alerts that drive gains in quality of care and help justify investment.
EMR suppliers are differentiated by the types of solutions they provide, the care setting, organization type and size they are designed to serve, the breadth of functionality they offer, and the price and maturity of their solutions. New technology, service-based licensing options and functionality are increasingly driving adopters of partial EMRs to upgrade and extend their systems to full EMR capabilities, while the needs of small- and mid-size facilities are being taken into account as these users install EMRs for the first time. Disparity in the needs and sophistication of customer segments has created a fragmented marketplace, particularly since standards and interoperability requirements have not been resolved.
With at least 100 vendors in the EMR space, and new technology like software-as-a-service and wireless capabilities playing an important role in system selection, we expect to see lots of merger and acquisition activity as dominant players emerge and their solutions mature to meet the needs and requirements of providers. The EMR Short List is a fact-based tool designed to help healthcare IT and business executives arrive at a subset of IT suppliers who best address their EMR functionality needs."
Posted by Shawn Whalen on January 24, 2008 at 4:41 PM
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