There’s been increasing focus on the quality of care and HIMSS has taken the initiative to help providers by launching an international quality measurement for the value of health IT.

The Value Score builds off of HIMSS' Value Suite and HIMSS Analytics' Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) and will help healthcare providers optimize and use IT to improve clinical and financial outcomes, and drive efficiencies in care, according to the organization.

HIMSS developed the guidelines for the Value Score and is currently refining the scoring algorithm across provider organizations in the U.S. and abroad, including HIMSS' Davies Award winners and small critical access hospitals. The results for this initial pilot group will include actionable datasets and scores.

Meanwhile, the attention on quality will translate into a market worth $16.9 billion by 2020.

That increase as predicted by BCC Research Healthcare is due to healthcare organizations working to improve both business operations and clinical care. Business analytics, the largest segment with 70 percent of the overall market, is forecast to almost triple in value from $4 billion in 2015 to $11.7 billion in 2020.

The growing use of IT in healthcare is supported by government regulations, decreasing costs of acquisition and storage of structured and unstructured health data and the adoption of interoperability and standards across healthcare organizations. The growth of aging populations, increasing chronic conditions and rising awareness about healthcare also is driving the demand for consumer-driven healthcare services, according to the firm.

Beth Walsh

Clinical Innovation + Technology editor