Better EPR Decisions Start with Better Market Insight

How HIC brought healthcare providers and EPR suppliers together to explore clinical needs, understand market capabilities and support more informed investment decisions.

Choosing an Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system is a significant decision for any healthcare organisation. The right solution can support clinical workflows, improve access to information and help deliver better care. The wrong fit, however, can introduce additional complexity, create new challenges for staff and fail to deliver the value an organisation needs.

Understanding what the healthcare providers need from their EPRs, and what the market can realistically provide, is essential to making informed decisions.

On 28 October 2026, the Healthcare Innovation Consortium (HIC), brought healthcare providers and EPR suppliers together for a Soft Market Testing Day. Hosted through HIC's EPR Network, the event gave NHS organisations the opportunity to share their priorities directly with suppliers and explore potential solutions before making future investment decisions.

The focus was practical: better conversations, clearer understanding and more informed decisions about the technology that supports patient care.

Why soft market testing matters

EPR procurement is about more than selecting a system with the right features. Healthcare organisations need to understand how a solution will work in their specific environment, whether it meets clinical requirements and what it will take to implement and use it effectively.

This starts with understanding the problem that needs to be solved.

Clinical teams need systems that support the realities of their working day. Digital leaders need to understand the capabilities available in the market, how different solutions address organisational requirements and where further exploration may be needed.

Without this understanding, organisations risk investing in technology that doesn't fully meet their needs or introduces challenges that could have been identified earlier.

Soft market testing provides an opportunity to explore these questions before procurement decisions are made. It allows healthcare providers to explain their challenges, ask suppliers targeted questions and develop a clearer picture of the options available.

For suppliers, it creates an opportunity to understand NHS priorities and explain how their solutions could address specific requirements.

This exchange helps move conversations beyond product features towards the practical value technology can deliver.

Bringing NHS organisations and suppliers together

The day was structured to maximise opportunities for meaningful discussion.

Healthcare providers began by sharing their current challenges and opportunities, where they were in their procurement journey, what they hoped to learn from the market and the questions they wanted suppliers to answer.

These presentations established the context for the conversations that followed. Rather than approaching discussions without a clear understanding of the challenges involved, suppliers had an opportunity to hear directly from healthcare organisations about their priorities.

The event then moved into a series of facilitated, ten-minute meetings between NHS representatives and suppliers. The round-robin format enabled participants to engage with different organisations throughout the day, creating space for focused conversations around individual requirements and potential solutions.

Breaks and networking sessions provided additional opportunities to continue discussions and build connections.

For John McCann, Vice President of Global Marketing at BridgeHead Software, the opportunity to connect was a key benefit of the day:

"Thanks for a great day, yesterday. It was great to connect with NHS and private healthcare organisations in an informal setting to discuss the art of the possible"

The format was designed to make the most of everyone's time while ensuring that healthcare organisations could explore their needs with suppliers in a structured setting.

For the EPR Network, bringing these groups together is an important part of supporting collaboration between healthcare providers and industry. Open, focused conversations can help both sides develop a more informed understanding of the challenges, opportunities and capabilities involved in EPR investment.

Keeping clinical needs at the centre

A key consideration throughout EPR planning should be the people who will use the technology every day.

Clinical requirements need to inform decisions from the outset, not become an afterthought once a preferred solution has already been identified.

Understanding these requirements means looking beyond a list of technical features. It involves exploring how a system could support clinical workflows, where existing processes create difficulties and what healthcare professionals need technology to help them achieve.

Market engagement can help organisations test their assumptions, explore different approaches and identify questions that need further investigation.

It also helps suppliers understand the context in which their solutions will be used. A capability that works well in one setting may need to be considered differently in another, depending on local services, workflows and organisational priorities.

These conversations are an important step towards ensuring that technology decisions are grounded in operational and clinical needs.

The objective is not simply to purchase an EPR, but to invest in a solution that addresses the right problems and has the potential to deliver meaningful value.

Supporting informed and responsible engagement

Effective market engagement also needs to take place within an appropriate framework.

As part of the day, Hill Dickinson, an HIC EPR Network and Data and Digital Genomic Network member, hosted the event and delivered a session on competition law, presented by Chris Demetriou.

The session provided an overview of competition law considerations relevant to collaboration across the network.

This was an important part of the programme, reinforcing the need to consider how healthcare organisations and suppliers engage with one another while exploring market opportunities.

Alongside the structured discussions, the session helped provide context for constructive engagement between healthcare organisations and industry.

A huge thank you to Hill Dickinson for hosting the event, providing the space for these conversations to take place and supporting the day with refreshments. Their contribution helped bring the community together for a day focused on practical collaboration.

We also thank NHS England, the participating healthcare organisations and suppliers for contributing their time and expertise.

Building on the conversations

The Soft Market Testing Day demonstrated the value of creating dedicated opportunities for healthcare organisations and suppliers to discuss EPR requirements directly.

By giving healthcare providers space to explain their priorities and suppliers the opportunity to explore those needs, the day supported the exchange of information needed to make market engagement useful and focused.

The next step is to build on these conversations, explore relevant follow-up opportunities and continue developing the understanding needed to support future EPR decisions.

For healthcare organisations, the message is clear: understand your requirements, explore what the market can offer and test your assumptions before committing to a solution.

For suppliers, listening to the challenges healthcare providers are trying to solve is essential to demonstrating where their technology can make a difference.

Ultimately, better market understanding can help organisations make more informed investment decisions, with clinical needs and practical value at the centre.

Work with HIC

Through the EPR Network, HIC brings healthcare providers and industry together to share knowledge, explore challenges and support collaboration across digital health.

If your organisation is exploring EPR requirements, looking to better understand the market or interested in engaging with the HIC EPR Network, we'd welcome a conversation.

Contact the HIC team to find out more about the EPR Network and how we can support your organisation.