Disruptive medical IT is the norm at the annual HIMSS conference and exhibition, being held this week in Las Vegas.

Visitors to the Dimension Data booth got an up-close introduction to MONA, a mobile nursing observation station that looks like an upright vacuum cleaner with eye-like cameras and two-way audio, that allows medical professionals to monitor patients from a remote location.

If the patient speaks a different language than staff, the platform will even translate.

MONA is a product of Dimension Data’s 2014 acquisition of solutions provider Nexus, and illustrates the growing bets firms are making in healthcare IT, a market estimated at $10 billion way back at the turn of the decade.

“We are a systems integration company,” said Jason Brandt, director of healthcare practice for Dimension Data. “Where our value comes is … wrapping a number of technologies together to solve a health care problem.”   

Officials at the firm saw the first signs of the burgeoning healthcare MSP market following passage of HIPPA in the late 1990s.

But since 2011, concerns over compliance and tightening margins have so increased demand for healthcare IT resources, the market now accounts for about a fifth of New York-based Dimension Data’s U.S. business, Brandt said.

During the past nine years – dating back to before its acquisition – Nexus has seen an average of roughly 23 percent year-over-year growth, Brandt said.

The opportunity in healthcare is drawing so much interest from managed services providers that HIMSS late last year launched Logic, a product of HIMSS Analytics that provides healthcare providers, IT companies and others with data-driven insights for guiding healthcare IT strategies. 

HIMSS officials say entrants to the market can use Logic to accelerate their understanding of the healthcare market from various perspectives, including IT usage, first-time purchases, upgrades or replacements. The product also includes information about key healthcare decision makers in specific organizations or areas of focus.

“Our customers have come to rely on us for the most cutting edge, reliable insights and data,” Blain Newton, chief operating officer of HIMSS Analytics, said at the time of the announcement. “Now, with Logic, the industry can access actionable data faster than any other resource in the market.”

“Logic is also unique in that it offers benefits for organizations both large and small – tech giants and emerging companies alike can leverage Logic to improve their understanding of the marketplace,” he said.

Logic utilizes the HIMSS Analytics Database, which stores data from provider institutions across the country.

In addition to winning several awards at this week’s Cisco Partner Summit, Dimension Data ranked first in last year’s MSPmentor MSP 501 worldwide ranking of top managed services firms. 

Dimension Data’s Brandt suggests firms seeking to stay ahead of the competition in healthcare IT must recognize that the market continues to evolve, and that customers are putting a premium on consulting expertise and comprehensive solutions.

“We spent the last seven years with folks learning how to get the electronic health records in place,” he said. “The next iteration is learning how to use it to be a valuable (healthcare) tool.”

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