Frost and Sullivan: Increasing number of hospitals and healthcare projects expand the market for healthcare IT in the GCC

The increase in patient volume and healthcare data is due to the changing disease profile of the GCC population.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Healthcare Information Technology in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries, finds that the total healthcare IT expenditure in the GCC countries in 2011 was estimated to be $444.2m and is expected to reach $550.9m by 2015. The client server technology was the most popular in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the UAE, while the rest of the GCC preferred broadband.

The governments' robust efforts to streamline and manage healthcare through IT, notwithstanding the market challenges, which is lack of set standards for data storage and management. Storing data in multiple formats makes data integration from all the hospitals challenging. Further, as it is expected to take considerable time and effort to be acquainted with this technology, most healthcare professionals prefer to stick to the traditional methods.

The market, especially in the KSA, is also held back by the lack of skilled manpower. Most of the personnel trained and qualified to manage healthcare IT solutions are expatriates.

"The healthcare IT market can make more technicians available by increasing the number of technical institutes in the GCC countries and training and motivating the doctors to increasingly use IT solutions for healthcare delivery," says Frost & Sullivan Healthcare Analyst.

All the Chief Information Officers (CIOs) surveyed by Frost & Sullivan believe that IT can help in the day-to-day management of their hospitals. The stand-out benefits of healthcare IT are easier access to hospital information, reduced time and efforts to manage the records, enhanced security for hospital information and better information flow within the organisation and structured database.

"The higher awareness about health and wellness, changing disease patterns, government support, and escalating volumes of healthcare data is expected to ensure rapid growth of the Healthcare IT market in the GCC," summarised Frost & Sullivan Analyst.

The Webinar conducted on 19th December 2012 titled "Health IT Investment Growing in GCC Countries" shared strategic insights for the hospitals, application providers, service providers and healthcare workers by discussing the various need and gaps in the GCC healthcare market.

Healthcare Information Technology in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries is part of the Life Sciences Growth Partnership Services program, which also includes Healthcare IT CIO Insights in India, China, Australia and Southeast Asia.

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