Healthcare IT Industry ESG Thematic Report, 2023

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) in Healthcare IT Industry

Integrating ESG into decision making and business strategies contributes to an effective due diligence and a better investment decision for the company as well as relevant stakeholders. The companies that fall under the healthcare market have been transitioning and addressing their sustainability progress and agenda.

This segment has more social impact compared to environmental impact. Access to healthcare has been the primary focus of this market, with high quality healthcare services, solutions and providing optimal attention to people, profit and planet. The companies which focus doesn’t compensate on product quality and safety as Health care IT are inclusive of lifesaving and sustaining equipment like defibrillators, PET, magnetic resonance, radiography etc. The companies also mention targets to achieve access to healthcare by specific target year.  These companies also disclose data privacy and protection policies which ensure security for individual’s health information. This safety is also accompanied by technological advancements like big data, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence etc. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, this market had been significantly impacted with increased use of online health surveillance and virtual health solutions. Moreover, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) is a comprehensive framework that helps companies in this market obtain a perspective on the impact of their products and operations on ESG parameters.

ESG Trends

This segment has various trends from the social aspect of ESG, access to healthcare (SDG 3 –Health and Wellbeing) has been one of the vital trends which have been focused by these companies. One of the companies aims to improve the lives of 2.5 billion people a year by 2030 including 400 million people in underserved communities. Commitment also focuses on strengthening health systems and securing a path to universal health coverage (UHC) to enable sustainable health care. These companies include product innovations (SDG 9- industry, innovation and infrastructure) and collaborations with business models and strategies to have sustainable business growth. Along with UHC, big data, Artificial intelligence and the internet of things are the primary focus for innovation. Collaboration includes various stakeholders like local communities, governments, NGOs, UN bodies, academic institutions etc. Most of the companies are focusing on circular economy (SDG 13- climate action) within their business model, embracing efficient product design with minimum energy consumption and waste production.  These companies also focus on data privacy and protection as per CDC approved Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). This act focuses on protecting sensitive health information from being disclosed without the patient's consent.

ESG Challenges

Main challenges faced by this segment are cyber security and data privacy, even though there are regulatory bodies which ensure protected health information (PHI) of Individuals and financial transfers are involved in insurance claims like HIPAA, COBIT, PCI etc. There have been a lot of data breaches during the outbreak of COVID, for example in the US it is reported to have 68 data breach cases in the month of July 2021 according to mailmystatements.com. Online money transfer does have taxes and charges along with short payment portal time which might not be a viable option for an individual who has no experience with such a platform. User friendly designs are developed in order to mitigate such issues. Along with this, lack of price transparency has been one of the main issues with the sector and only tech-savvy patients can avail best service pricing before taking an appointment.  Even though innovations like big data have been introduced into the market, healthcare data comes in various formats and currently there is no system to retrieve, store and analyze data from various sources. 

Growth of the Healthcare IT Market

Healthcare IT market has been flourishing along with new innovative spaces like big data, AI, IoT etc. The demand of healthcare IT market had a positive impact in the time of pandemic. Even though there are various discrepancies and data breaches, with support of sound and strong regulatory bodies like HIPAA, COBIT, PCI etc. market can sustain with a promising future. This market has been valued at 135.6 billion USD in 2021 and is expected to propel to 29.3% of compound annual growth rate.

Key Companies in this theme

    • Philips Healthcare

    • Agfa Healthcare

    • Hewlett-Packard Enterprise

    • Care stream Health

    • GE Healthcare

    • E-MDS Inc.

    • Athena health Inc.

    • eClinicalworks

    • McKesson Corporation

Scope of the Healthcare IT Industry ESG Thematic Report

    • Macro-economic and ESG-variable analysis of the industry, including regulatory, policy, and innovation landscape

    • Key insights on infrastructure developments and ESG issues affecting the theme

    • Identify key initiatives and challenges within the industry

    • Identify ESG leaders within the industry

    • Understand key initiatives and the impact of companies within the sector to fuel an informed decision-making process

    • Analysis of industry activities based on multi-media sources, including significant controversies and market sentiment

Key Benefits the Healthcare IT Industry ESG Thematic Report

    • Developing a comprehensive understanding of macro-economic, Policies & Regulations and innovations affecting the Healthcare IT space, globally

    • Key insights into environmental developments and ESG issues affecting the theme

    • Identifying ESG risks and opportunities to business among leading players in the Healthcare IT industry

    • Obtaining a clear and relevant understanding of company actions, progress, and impact and find opportunities for investment into the sector