
Over the past decade, healthcare systems worldwide have adopted digital technologies such as electronic health records, cloud infrastructure, and connected medical devices to improve information access, efficiency, compliance, and care coordination.
However, the coexistence of legacy platforms and newer tools has resulted in fragmented systems, limited interoperability, and inconsistent data exchange.
As healthcare organizations scale, addressing these structural gaps has become essential to building reliable and sustainable healthcare systems, rather than continuing to add isolated digital tools.
Adoption of Digital Health Technologies
Industry research from MarketsandMarkets indicates Digital health technologies encompass telemedicine, wearable devices, electronic health records (EHR), AI diagnostics, remote patient monitoring (RPM), and mHealth apps that enable data-driven care delivery.
Global adoption surged post-COVID, reaching 1.3 billion users in 2024, projected to hit 1.77 billion by 2029 as smartphone penetration exceeds 80% in developed markets.
The market, valued at $427-492 billion in 2025, is expected to reach $1,500-2,351 billion by 2032-2034.
Regional Breakdown:
- USA: 96% hospitals offer EHR patient access; app-based inpatient access rose from 68% to 80%; 154% telehealth spike in 2020, with 80% lifetime usage.
- Europe: Gains $132.85B by 2026, driven by GDPR-compliant telehealth.
- Asia-Pacific: China sees 363M users via online medical services.
- Global South: 52% telehealth growth in access.
Legacy Systems and Infrastructure Fragmentation
According to innovaccer Legacy systems in healthcare refer to outdated IT infrastructure often mainframes, COBOL-based billing platforms, early EHRs from the 1990s/2000s, and siloed HIS/LIS that persist due to high replacement costs and perceived stability, comprising 60-75% of hospital IT budgets for maintenance alone.
Now, Over 60% of U.S. hospitals run critical apps on non cloud ready legacy software lacking FHIR APIs; globally, hospitals average 200-300 disconnected systems, creating data silos that fragment patient records across departments.
In Europe, 40% of NHS trusts still depend on 20+ year old systems vulnerable to failures, while emerging markets like Bangladesh see 80%+ manual/hybrid setups exacerbating the divide.
Interoperability and Clinical Workflow Integration

Interoperability enables seamless data exchange across EHRs, labs, pharmacies, and devices via standards like FHIR/HL7, yet 70% of healthcare systems suffer integration failures, blocking real-time clinical decisions.
Clinical workflow integration unifies disjointed processes, orders, results, referrals, and billing into continuous care pathways. 80% of clinicians report time lost to manual data reconciliation; 40% medication errors stem from poor handoffs between siloed platforms.
And here’s the Business Impact:
- $30B+ U.S. annual losses from interoperability gaps
- 25% longer stays
- 15% readmissions
- 85% of hospitals plan FHIR modernization by 2027 as multi-app ecosystems demand API-first architectures
Root Causes: Legacy protocols, vendor lock-in, inconsistent data formats.
Solutions: FHIR APIs, middleware platforms, embedded clinical decision support.
KLAS Interoperability Report reveals 92% provider dissatisfaction with current integration capabilities.