Smart Cards, RFID, Biometrics and Hand-Held Devices – Advanced Technologies Adopted by Hospitals

Tier I Hospitals Spending Approximately 2% of Their Revenues on IT - New Purchase Plus Maintenance and Upgrade

MUMBAI, India--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Frost & Sullivan recently hosted a two day Healthcare IT Executive MindXchange – “IT Advancements in Healthcare Delivery”, at The Leela, Goa. This high profiled summit addressed the dynamic changes taking place in IT adoption by Indian Healthcare delivery services and focused on the advances that would impact them in the near future.

“Today’s integrated applications not only allow hospitals to analyze effectiveness of process but also provide tools for strategy and forecasting to make better business decisions”

With the Healthcare Delivery space in India continuing on its aggressive growth path; offering state of the art disease management modalities in established centers, providing world class quality care to the inaccessible geographies of the country, and optimizing the cost of healthcare expenditure have become the prime focus areas for all players in the healthcare delivery space. These focus areas have channeled efforts into leveraging innovative technologies and creating a sustainable competitive advantage for the participants and have consequently brought the role of Information Technology to the fore.

The impact of Information Technology in Healthcare Delivery has been significant not only on the process and enterprise efficiency needed to bring healthcare services closer to people but also in aiding and improving the disease management modalities given the convergence of medicine, devices and technology. This is clearly reflected in the fact that the growth of IT in healthcare sector is expected to record a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 18% (2006-2010).

“IT adoption in Healthcare Delivery has grown at both process and enterprise level to accomplish a wide range of objectives, chief of which are improvement in process efficiency, enterprise effectiveness and customer satisfaction. The implementation of enterprise applications help in achieving process efficiency, reduction in operating costs, inventory reduction, improved customer service, higher profitability and tap new business opportunities,” says Sandeep Sinha, Program Manager - Health IT and Healthcare Delivery Practice at Frost & Sullivan, South Asia and Middle East. “Today’s integrated applications not only allow hospitals to analyze effectiveness of process but also provide tools for strategy and forecasting to make better business decisions,” he added.

At this summit, various key industry players from large hospitals, Government health departments and major Health IT companies addressed and discussed various issues in IT adoption in hospitals. The event focused on the various healthcare IT standards applicable internationally and the need of similar standards in India, their applicability and the kind of work that is being done towards formulating these standards in India.

There were a few panel discussions which brought forward challenges, best practices and ROI on IT adoption. The expert panels agreed that both management and IT-users in the hospitals are equally responsible for successful implementation of various IT applications. The proper alignment of IT for better delivery of healthcare services could only be achieved with sound awareness about benefits and motivation for new application adoption.

Today, Tier I hospitals are spending approximately 2% of their revenues on IT (new purchase plus maintenance and upgrade). Apart from these, hospitals are also going ahead with the use of some advanced technologies like smart cards, RFID, biometrics and hand-held devices to further improve processes.

The major challenge every hospital faces during IT adoption is in the areas of implementation and maintenance services. Therefore, in Indian healthcare delivery market, areas like training, infrastructure, implementation support and maintenance services to healthcare providers seem to be the biggest upcoming opportunities.

Various major IT players – Microsoft, HP and InterSystems, partnering the event also addressed the issues focusing on connected healthcare services and technologies that will help reduce healthcare costs and create an environment of easy accessibility to healthcare delivery in both public and private sector services.

The other key partners for this event included AGFA Healthcare and Sobha Renaissance. Modern Medicare, Express Healthcare, Medical Buyer and e-Health were the official media partners for this event.

About Frost & Sullivan: Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, has been partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies for more than 45 years. The company's industry expertise integrates growth consulting, growth partnership services and corporate management training to identify and develop opportunities. Frost & Sullivan serves an extensive clientele that includes Global 1000 companies, emerging companies, and the investment community, by providing comprehensive industry coverage that reflects a unique global perspective and combines ongoing analysis of markets, technologies, econometrics, and demographics. For more information, visit http://www.frost.com.