We hope Michael Jackson will forgive us from borrowing the pun, but the tables and charts on the next two pages show the amazing growth story of the Top 12 “Total HIS” vendors. Taken from the archives of Healthcare Informatics, these figures trace the revenue reported by the major players over the past decades, since HCI first instituted its annual revenue survey. Some notes:
McKesson/HBOC — whose meteoric rise in the '90s to pass SMS was ended by an Enron-like scandal circa 1999, causing revenue figures to be re-stated downward by hundreds of millions. Our charts and tables always reflect the re-stated revenue vendors give us for preceding years.
Siemens — again, we wish this German conglomerate would report its HIT revenue separately, and it may well be far closer to (or ahead of?) McKesson. Short of such forensic accounting, however, we estimate this company is at least very close to Cerner's $1.5 billion, an incredible growth since the founding as an “unknown” start-up in 1969 in Conshohocken, Pa.
GE — whose growth through MandA activity is only rivaled by the company's capital resources with $189 billion in world-wide revenues, the largest total corporate revenue (HIT and other all other segments) of any vendor reporting.
Epic — your eyes don't deceive, this company has reported no revenue to HCI prior to 1996, making its meteoric growth since to be, well, epic.
Eclipsys — since it was formed by Harvey Wilson, co-founder of SMS, this company's growth is almost as phenomenal as one man founding two HIS giants.
Meditech — with solid growth for almost four decades, the only thing more amazing about this company is its profit margin: nearly 40 percent.
| 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | |
| Dairyland | $5 | $6 | $7 | $8 | $10 | $14 | $14 | $16 | $19 | |
| HMS | $9 | $10 | $12 | $15 | $18 | $20 | ||||
| CPSI | $7 | $9 | $9 | $10 | $14 | $19 | $18 | $22 | $24 | $32 |
| QuadraMed | 23 | $23 | $23 | $23 | $28 | $49 | $54 | $74 | $100 | $120 |
| Keane | $10 | $15 | $22 | $25 | $30 | $43 | $91 | |||
| Meditech | $49 | $69 | $78 | $92 | $105 | $124 | $143 | $168 | $194 | $204 |
| Eclipsys | $70 | $78 | $81 | $85 | $90 | $138 | $140 | $141 | $182 | |
| Epic | $27 | $31 | $36 | |||||||
| GE | $91 | $105 | $128 | $157 | $251 | $350 | ||||
| Siemens | $390 | $403 | $439 | $470 | $501 | $550 | $650 | $767 | $921 | $1,100 |
| Cerner | $49 | $57 | $77 | $101 | $121 | $156 | $187 | $189 | $245 | $331 |
| McKesson | $176 | $174 | $171 | $202 | $237 | $454 | $607 | $796 | $1,129 | $1,511 |
| 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
| $25 | $18 | $19 | $21 | $25 | $25 | $32 | $38 | $39 |
| $23 | $23 | $29 | $31 | $33 | $35 | $42 | $47 | $54 |
| $50 | $51 | $60 | $74 | $81 | $83 | $109 | $116 | $110 |
| $192 | $129 | $129 | $97 | $116 | $125 | $122 | $125 | $137 |
| $123 | $88 | $95 | $155 | $176 | $175 | $181 | $174 | $189 |
| $226 | $211 | $218 | $256 | $271 | $281 | $305 | $345 | $376 |
| $249 | $217 | $237 | $218 | $255 | $309 | $383 | $428 | $477 |
| $36 | $51 | $47 | $106 | $178 | $309 | $370 | $422 | $503 |
| $341 | $342 | $380 | $460 | $399 | $521 | $994 | $1,000 | $1,000 |
| $1,200 | $1,100 | $950 | $1,000 | $1,100 | $1,200 | $1,300 | $1,400 | $1,500 |
| $340 | $405 | $543 | $752 | $840 | $926 | $1,161 | $1,380 | $1,520 |
| $1,326 | $1,088 | $930 | $1,000 | $1,139 | $1,203 | $1,302 | $1,542 | $1,905 |
