A recently published report from market research firm TechNavio predicts that the global health care analytics market will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of roughly 25 percent in the period between 2013 and 2018. The company identifies the increasing adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) by health care providers as one of the major drivers of this growth.

The use of EHRs is fast becoming widespread, initially as a tool to make patients’ health information readily available and easy to update, but the potential future benefits go much further. EHRs could allow physicians to share information with their peers anywhere in the world, and this collaboration could lead to improved diagnoses in particularly difficult or unusual cases.

As this blog reported, a separate study by IQ4I Research and Consultancy recently forecasted that the market will reach $20.8 billion in value by 2020. TechNavio also identified some specific areas where they expect to see particular development, including on the business side, where reducing medical errors will bring down costs.

“Health care analytics analyzes this data to provide insightful information regarding planning, management, measurement and learning in health care enterprises,” the report reads. “This information can then be used to enhance the decision-making capability of top management.”

Both IQ4I and TechNavio agreed that the major factors that could prevent even faster market growth are privacy and security concerns. While the benefits of experts sharing information among themselves are evident, there will also naturally be questions about patient confidentiality and whether sensitive data is secure. But it is undeniable that data solutions can have a very positive effect on the health care industry, and security measures are already evolving in step with the market itself.