IT INVESTMENT IN HEALTHCARE

Health care reform will mean disruption as well as the opportunity for greater efficiencies through better use of technology. Also mandated upgrades to health care IT will demand heavy investments by providers but will also help them minimize waste and standardize best medical practices across the nation. New regulations that require healthcare providers to use electronic health records (EHR), and adhere to strict data-coding standards will force them to spend billions over the next decade to upgrade their IT systems. 

A provider that creates a best-practice IT platform to house and share medical records, to manage hospitals/clinics resources more transparently, and to define precise guidelines for medically authorized tests and procedures can generate significant operating efficiencies. Such a platform minimizes paperwork, reduces the number of unnecessary treatments, and lowers the risk of drug and medical error. The productivity and resource savings often pay back the initial IT investment within two to four years while also producing better health outcomes for patients and the reasons for this robust growth and predicted consistency of high growth as well as return, is due to: 

•   Robust Economic growth.

• Expansion of “the Middle class” and increasing disposable income.

• An aging population and greater health awareness.

•  Government active impetus to this industry.

•  Aggressive penetration of insurance.

•   Lower base and hence higher growth and returns potential.

The Growth and Opportunities in this sector creates a thrust for comprehensive and organized IT architecture to support necessary tools viz. EMR, EHR, PHR, etc. This will facilitate shared knowledge and free flow of information which will provide the needed transparency, including the system’s performance on safety, cooperation among clinicians, and patient satisfaction. Such tools will also help in evidence based decision making.

Some Facts & Figures which will surely help IT players to invest in the healthcare sector:

•   The Indian healthcare sector is expected reach US$ 280 billion by 2020.

•   India with an expected GDP spends of 8 per cent by 2012 from 5.5 per cent in 2009.

•   The size of the Indian medical technology industry may touch US$ 14 billion by 2020 from US$ 2.7 billion in 2008

• Share of private expenditure as a percentage of total expenditure on healthcare has grown from 60 per cent to nearly 80 per cent over the last decade.  

• Expected to generate employment opportunities for nine million people by 2012.

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