Global Healthcare Biometrics Market is Estimated to Witness High Growth Owing to Rising Cybersecurity Threats and Growing Adoption of Digital Health Records
The Global Healthcare Biometrics Market is estimated to be valued at USD 10.10 Bn in 2024, exhibiting a CAGR of 22.5% over the forecast period (2024-2031). Biometrics is helping reduce security risks in the healthcare sector by replacing passwords and cards with unique body measurements and behavior patterns. Furthermore, the adoption of digital health records and remote patient monitoring are driving the demand for robust identity and access management solutions.
Market Dynamics:
Rising concerns over the security of patient data as well as staff credentials has accelerated the adoption of biometrics authentication systems in the healthcare industry. Biometric technologies such as fingerprint, face, and iris recognition can authenticate identities of patients and workers more securely as compared to conventional access cards or passwords. This reduces security risks due to lost, stolen, or sharing of ID cards and passwords. Moreover, biometrics seamlessly integrate with Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and mHealth systems to ensure frictionless yet secure access. Another key driver is the growing telemedicine and remote care services. The pandemic has further boosted investments in telehealth and digital healthcare delivery models. Biometrics plays a vital role in authenticating remote patients and providing them access to virtual care sessions in a secure manner.
Growth in Adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHR) is Driving Demand for Healthcare Biometrics
The adoption of electronic health records (EHR) has increased significantly across the globe in recent years. EHR enables the digitization of patient medical records and streamlines various clinical workflows. However, security of patient data stored in EHR systems is a major concern. Healthcare biometrics provides a reliable solution for patient identification and authentication in EHR systems. Biometric technologies like fingerprint, iris, and facial recognition ensure only authorized patients and medical professionals can access confidential health records. This enhances privacy and prevents misuse of patient data. With governments allocating higher budgets for EHR adoption, the need for robust security and identification solutions like biometrics is increasing steadily in the healthcare industry.
Increasing Cases of Medical Identity Theft are Propelling Healthcare Biometrics Deployments
Medical identity theft has emerged as a serious problem affecting both patients and healthcare providers. Criminals are stealing personal details like names, dates of birth, insurance details from hospitals, clinics, and medical billing offices to fraudulently obtain medical services. This costs the U.S. healthcare system billions annually in losses. Biometric authentication provides a full-proof way to uniquely identify individuals and reduce such fraudulent activities. Various hospitals and medical insurance firms are integrating biometrics in patient check-ins, medical procedures verification, and claims processing to tackle the rising issue of medical identity theft. This growing demand from end-users will further augment the healthcare biometrics market.
Lack of Standards are Hindering Wide Acceptance
Despite various benefits, lack of common standards is a major challenge impeding faster adoption of biometrics in healthcare. Different biometric technologies have their own technical specifications, which makes integration difficult. There are no agreed protocols for storage, matching, and exchange of biometric templates between diverse systems. This complex interoperability issue creates confusion among healthcare organizations. Also, legal and regulatory policies around data protection and privacy vary widely across nations and still evolving. Absence of global harmonization of technical as well as policy frameworks is slowing down large-scale implementations of biometrics in sensitive medical environments. Establishing standardized protocols and regulations would help address current compatibility problems and accelerate market growth.
High Implementation and Integration Costs are Acting as a Restraint
Deploying biometric security on a large scale requires substantial upfront investments which many healthcare providers, especially in developing regions, find unaffordable. Front-end costs include procuring hardware like fingerprint or iris scanners, cameras, biometric time clocks, etc. and biometric software. There are also back-end expenses associated with system integration, IT infrastructure upgrades, consultancy, training, and maintenance. Further, replacement or upgrade of existing systems disrupts clinical operations and demands additional spends. Especially for smaller hospitals and clinics with tight budgets, high costs deter biometrics adoption despite obvious benefits. This cost factor remains a major hurdle for the healthcare biometrics industry.
Growing Telemedicine and Remote Patient Monitoring are Opening New Opportunities
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital transformation of the healthcare sector worldwide. Technologies like telemedicine, telehealth, and remote patient care have seen tremendous rise in usage over the last two years. However, ensuring secure identification of remote patients engaging with doctors and nurses online or through connected medical devices poses new challenges. Biometric verification provides a simple yet foolproof solution to authenticate identities without physical presence. Emerging use cases around online medical consultations, prescription authentication, remote diagnosis, and connected care devices are offering new growth avenues for healthcare biometrics vendors. Market players are coming up with innovative product and service offerings targeting evolving telehealth and remote monitoring domains. This will further fuel overall market expansion in the long run.
Blockchain is Standardizing Healthcare Biometrics Records
Blockchain, the distributed ledger technology, has a huge potential to revolutionize biometrically-enabled healthcare by standardizing identity records while keeping them private and secure. Storing biometrics templates on an immutable blockchain network eliminates the need for centralized databases which are prone to hacks and data breaches. Patients have sole ownership of their biometrics and can conveniently share only required identity attributes with authorized parties like doctors and insurers. Several healthcare organizations are experimenting with Blockchain-based solutions to address problems around clinical data interoperability and identity management. Once security and regulatory issues are ironed out, blockchain could emerge as a game-changing technology advancing large-scale biometrics deployments in medical settings across borders.
Link: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/market-insight/healthcare-biometrics-market-155
Key Developments:
- In February 2024, Imprivata, Inc., a digital identity company, launched Biometric Patient Identity, a facial recognition solution for healthcare institutions. This technology ensures accurate patient identification, enhancing security and reducing medical errors.
- In November 2022, NEC Corporation introduced its multimodal biometric authentication solution under its ‘Bio-Idiom’ brand. This system combines facial and iris recognition for highly accurate and reliable identification.
- In March 2022, BioIntelliSense unveiled the BioButton Rechargeable, a wearable medical-grade device for continuous multi-parameter monitoring. It tracks over 20 vital signs and biometrics for up to 30 days on a single charge, depending on its configuration.
Key Players:
NEC Corporation, Thales Group, Fujitsu, HID Global Corporation, IDEMIA, BIO-key International, Aware, Inc., Imprivata, Inc., Suprema, Inc., Hitachi Ltd., Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., Gemalto (now part of Thales), Crossmatch (now part of HID Global), ZKTeco, and Innovatrics
