Healthcare providers in India to spend $1.2 bn on IT in 2015

Healthcare providers in India are expected to spend $1.2 billion on IT products and services in 2015, a 7-per cent increase over the previous year, according to a forecast by research and analysis firm Gartner.

This forecast includes spending by healthcare providers (hospitals, ambulatory service and physicians practices) on internal services, software, IT services, data centre, devices and telecom services.

''IT services, which include consulting, implementation, IT outsourcing (ITO) and business process outsourcing (BPO), will be the largest overall spending category throughout the forecast period within the healthcare providers sector,'' said Anurag Gupta, research vice president at Gartner.

''It is expected to reach $334 million in 2015, growing 7 per cent over 2014. The BPO sub-segment will record the fastest growth rate of 15 per cent over 2014. ITO will be the largest sub-segment in IT services recording a 10 percent increase in 2015 to reach $103 million in 2015,'' he added.

The software market will grow 6.7 per cent in 2015 to reach $102 million, up from $96 million in 2014. Vertical specific software (VSS), which includes hospital information system, electronic health and medical records, health information management, patient financial management, and more, will grow 6 per cent in 2015 to reach $28 million.

''The growth in the Indian healthcare Information and Communications Technology market will be driven by the private sector mainly focusing in tertiary specialised care, secondary hospital care and the government investments on core public health and primary care across several states,'' said Gupta.