Healthcare providers in India will spend Rs 5,700 crore on IT products and services in 2013, a 7 per cent rise over 2012 revenues of Rs 5,300 crore.
They include spending by healthcare providers (hospitals and hospital systems, as well as ambulatory services and physicians' practices) on internal IT (including personnel), hardware, software, external IT services and telecommunications.
“Rising demand from the growing middle-class in India’s large cities is fuelling growth in private sector healthcare. Large national and State Government programmes will spur growth along the primary (and secondary) care sector and public health domain,” said Anurag Gupta, research director at Gartner.
“Hospital information systems, picture archiving and communications systems, electronic health records and mobile technologies will be high on the agenda. We expect to see providers benefit by offering cost-effective business models which show quick returns on capital by improving patient coverage and improving quality of care. Health insurance growth will also catalyse technology adoption in healthcare provider segments,” Gupta added.
Telecommunications, which includes telecommunications and networking equipment and services, will remain the largest overall spending category throughout the forecast period within the healthcare providers sector, according to a forecast by research and analysis firm Gartner.
It is expected to grow to 3.9 per cent in 2013 to reach Rs 1,720 crore in 2013, up from Rs 1,660 crore in 2012, with most of this growth coming from enterprise communication equipment.
Internal services (salaries and benefits paid to information services staff) will achieve the highest growth rate amongst the spending categories — forecast to be 18 per cent in 2013.
IT services will achieve the next highest growth rate amongst the spending categories — forecast to grow 9.7 per cent in 2013 to reach Rs 1,450 crore in 2013, up from Rs 1,320 crore in 2012 led by growth in process management and consulting.