Key Driver

Factors

Details

Political

• Certifications, such as CMS EHR and ONC Health IT

Some certifications simply show that the software is of high quality, while others such as Meaningful Use can actually earn clients more money than the initial cost of the software.

Economic

• Database Licensing

• Data Management Costs

• Thin Client Support

Oracle is currently going from axiUm client to axiUm client dealing out heavy penalties and asking back payments of large amounts costing clients millions of dollars at a time when many clients were already looking at lowering their data hosting costs. Additionally, most schools are already using Thin Clients to make supporting their large user bases easier.

Social

• Some Healthcare based Universities are trying to unify their software base

• There is a "Keeping up with the Joneses" push to use the latest technologies

• Consortiums

• Customer support must be maintained

Dental programs are often much smaller than other Health programs, putting axiUm at risk when Universities decide to use the same EHR across both programs. The more outdated the technology used in the Dental programs, the more likely it is to be replaced by Healthcare software.

Many user bases are banding together and forming Consortiums on specific topics or to ask for certain features, which is a way for the users to utilize their buying power to get the changes they need while those same users individually demand quick turnaround from customer support.

Technological

• Cloud, some clients want to offload management of their databases

• Interoperability with Third Party Systems, such as imaging software, prescription software or even medical EHR software to share patient data

• Wearables, such as Google Glass

Cloud, in this case, means hosting the databases online where they do not have to be managed by the client. This moves a lot of liability into the hosting company's hands, as they are now responsible for the security of that data.

Interoperability is a fancy way of saying that software should talk to each other, like when you take a radiograph with imaging software that software should talk to your EHR to both share the image, and the number of X-Ray exposures which has health implications.

Wearable technology is where many advances will be seen in upcoming years, such as wristbands that track your heartrate or blood pressure, and google glass which could take vocal commands while showing small confirmations on a tiny wearable screen.

Legal

• Regulations, such as HIPPA and FERPA

There are guidelines that must be met from a legal perspective, such as protecting patient and student data.

Environmental

• Reducing Paper Waste

• Utilizing existing equipment

One goal of most business-based software is to reduce the amount of paper needed to run a business, though even now many software solutions do the opposite by giving people fancy reports to print out. Other than the reports though, often paper is used to transfer information from one system to another (which is where Interoperability can help) or even within a system (such as forms to print out) where workflows can be improved.

Beyond paper, implementing a software solution often requires a large amount of hardware to be purchased or replaced as well. Businesses are often less inclined to upgrade hardware for financial reasons, but frequent hardware upgrades or replacements can also generate a lot of e-waste that could be avoided by optimizing software and maintaining backwards compatibility.