By Healthcare Facilities Today

The U.S. patient portal market is booming and is expected to reach $898.4 million by 2017, up from $279.8 million in 2012 – representing a 221 percent increase, Healthcare IT News quotes a new study as says.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan's "U.S. Patient Portal Market for Hospitals and Physicians: Overview and Outlook, 2012–2017," has found that the majority of revenue will primarily result from increased demand driven a number of factors including the need to meet Stage 2 meaningful use requirements, the growing move to clinical integration and accountable care, and increasing consumer demand for health information technology, according to the article

Approximately 50 percent of U.S. hospitals and 40 percent of U.S. physicians in ambulatory practice possess some type of patient portal technology, mostly acquired as a module of their practice management or electronic health record system, according to the study.

Patient portals are Web-based applications enabling patients to interact and communicate with their healthcare providers. Patient portal adoption and active use is accelerating dramatically across the U.S., driven by Stage 2 MU requirements, scheduled to begin in October 2013 for hospitals and January 2014 for physicians, according tot he article.

Read the article.