Post-HIC 2026, provider study finds interoperability, clinical cyber continuity and statewide EHR execution will dominate the next buying cycle

NORTH SYDNEY, AU / ACCESS Newswire / August 9, 2026 / Black Book Research today announced the publication of its Australia & New Zealand Healthcare Information Technology: 2027 Provider Market Outlook, an 81-page assessment e-book of the technologies, vendors and operating capabilities expected to shape health IT investment across the region.

Based on feedback from 684 provider-side leaders, the study concludes that Australia is entering one of its most active healthcare technology buying periods in recent years-but products will face a much higher burden of proof. Buyers are shifting attention from feature breadth and isolated pilots toward implementation capacity, production reliability, clinical recovery, interoperability, data portability and measurable workforce impact.

"Health technology will no longer be judged primarily by what it demonstrates in a pilot," said Doug Brown, Founder of Black Book Research. "The 2027 winners will be determined by what they can implement locally, operate safely, monitor in production, recover during an outage and prove has removed work. In this market, execution becomes the product."

Interoperability Emerges as Australia's Top Priority

On Black Book's 0-100 Australia healthcare IT priority index, the highest-pressure markets for 2027 are:

Interoperability, identity and connected care: 90

Cybersecurity and clinical continuity: 88

EHR optimisation and statewide execution: 86

Clinical AI and ambient documentation: 78

Data, analytics and benefits realisation: 74

The study finds that interoperability is moving beyond interface construction. Providers increasingly need transaction monitoring, patient matching, directories, exception queues, terminology management, failure escalation and clear ownership when information does not reach its destination.

Cybersecurity is undergoing a similar shift. Health systems are no longer evaluating recovery solely in terms of servers and infrastructure. Boards want evidence that medication management, diagnostics, patient identification, documentation and discharge can continue during a prolonged disruption.

Share by Default Exposes a Production-Readiness Gap

Black Book's separate survey of 228 Australian provider stakeholders found that 99% believed Share by Default could improve care coordination or safer consumer access, yet 92% reported a practical readiness gap.

Only 18% had tested reporting, exception or failure-monitoring workflows, while 23% could produce a history of successful uploads, failures and retries.

"The policy direction is well understood," Brown said. "The weakness is in the operating layer between national policy and daily clinical work: queues, logs, identity, escalation, data quality, patient communication and accountable support."

Feature Checklists Lose Influence

The highest-rated procurement requirements for 2027 are:

Local implementation and escalation capacity: 92

Tested clinical recovery and downtime evidence: 90

Open APIs, data portability and exit support: 88

Release-specific standards and regulatory conformance: 87

Identity, privacy and auditability: 85

Black Book expects these requirements to reshape RFPs, contracting and vendor evaluations across public hospitals, private health groups, primary care, pathology, imaging, aged care, community services and virtual-care programmes.

The report also provides 18-KPI vendor scorecards across 19 technology categories.

Category leaders include Oracle Health in enterprise EHR, EMR and patient administration systems; Orion Health in interoperability and health information exchange; Best Practice Software in primary care; Microsoft/Nuance in clinical AI and ambient documentation; CyberCX in cybersecurity and clinical continuity; and Telstra Health across virtual care and aged, home and community-care platforms.

About the Research

The provider panel included 536 Australian and 148 New Zealand respondents spanning executive, clinical, informatics, cybersecurity, data, finance, procurement, programme and operational roles.

Research was conducted between November 30. 2025 and August 7. 2026. Vendors required at least 10 qualified evaluations to appear in a category scorecard. Vendor, consultant and investor responses were excluded from scoring, and no supplier paid for inclusion or influenced the rankings or editorial findings.

The Australia & New Zealand Healthcare Information Technology: 2027 Provider Market Outlook is available from Black Book Research directly at https://www.blackbookmarketresearch.com or download the industry complimentary report directly at https://blackbookmarketresearch.com/australia-and-new-zealand-healthcare-it-2027-provider-market-outlook Email requests to this or other industry reports: [email protected]

About Black Book Research

Black Book Research provides independent healthcare technology and services intelligence based on verified client and user feedback. Its research evaluates vendor performance, strategic fit, implementation outcomes and market direction without vendor sponsorship or pay-for-play participation. Media Contact: [email protected] 1.800.863.7590

SOURCE: Black Book Research

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