Yahoo Finance Ecolab (ECL) Rolls Out HDI for Improved Food Surveillance
Ecolab Inc. ECL recently launched a dynamic Health Department Intelligence (HDI) platform with a view to focus on food safety. The HDI platform retrieves and manages health department inspection data for foodservice operators and provides insights to help address food safety risks. This will help the company improve health inspection performance and manage food safety risks efficiently.
The HDI platform transforms public health department inspection information for the advantage of food service operators by gaining access to real-time industry benchmarking data. With this, the Minnesota-based provider of hygiene services has forayed into the booming healthcare IT (HCIT) space.
The HDI platform is designed to collectlocal health department inspection data for food service operators, which is analyzed using an advanced algorithm. Itprovides users with information, thereby helping customers identify, predict and prevent food safety risks across multiple sites.
Healthcare and Data
Big data in healthcare has endless possibilities. The growing need is spurred by the recent major challenge of population health management and an ever-expanding patient base.
Some of the major HCIT bigwigs, which have carved out a niche in the big data domain, are Cerner Corporation CERN and athenahealth, Inc. ATHN. Cerner’s HealtheIntent and Millennium are bigdata platforms, which provide the company with significant exposure to big-data based AI (Artificial Intelligence) trends in the medical world. Meanwhile, athenahealth’s athenaNet shares relevant clinical information with doctors and patients.
Market Trends
According to Center for Science in the Public Interest, the prevalence of foodborne illnesses has led to an estimated $15 billion in annual healthcare costs for Americans.
ResearchAndMarkets opines that the global healthcare IT solutions market is expected to reach a worth of $223.16 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 13.7% during the forecast period of 2018 to 2023.
Price Performance
The latest developments are likely to provide cushion to Ecolab’s shares which have rallied 15.6%, compared with the industry’s rally of 3% in a year’s time.
Zacks Rank & A Key Pick
Ecolab carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
A better-ranked stock in the broader medical space is Abiomed, Inc. ABMD.
Abiomed has a long-term earnings growth rate of 27%. The stock sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
The Hottest Tech Mega-Trend of All
Last year, it generated $8 billion in global revenues. By 2020, it's predicted to blast through the roof to $47 billion. Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce "the world's first trillionaires," but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early.
See Zacks' 3 Best Stocks to Play This Trend >>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Cerner Corporation (CERN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
athenahealth, Inc. (ATHN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Ecolab Inc. (ECL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
ABIOMED, Inc. (ABMD) : Free Stock Analysis Report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Zacks Investment Research
