Healthcare providers in the Middle East and Africa will increase their IT spending by 3.8pc this year to US$4.4bn compared to 2012 revenues of US$4.3bn, Gartner, Inc, has forecast.
This forecast encompasses spending by healthcare providers, which includes hospitals and hospital systems, as well as ambulatory service and physicians’ practices, on internal IT (including personnel), hardware, software, external IT services and telecommunications.
Growth in mobile devices and enterprise communication equipment makes telecommunications, which includes telecoms and networking equipment and services, the largest overall spending category this year within the healthcare providers sector. It is expected to grow 4.7pc in 2013 to US$2.7bn this year, up from US$2.6bn in 2012.
Internal services, which refers to salaries and benefits paid to the information services staff of an organisation, is projected to reach US$576m in 2013.
IT services will achieve the next highest growth rate amongst the spending categories – forecast to grow 4.3pc in 2013 to reach US$455m in 2013, up from US$436m in 2012, led by growth in software support and IT management.
“Many countries within the Gulf Cooperation Council are encouraging transformation to services lead economy,” said Anurag Gupta, research director at Gartner.
“Development in the healthcare sector is a major priority to increase medical tourism, respond to lifestyle diseases, encourage disease prevention and position the Middle East at the leading edge of medical development.
“Growing private healthcare infrastructure, accreditations to internationally recognised agencies and government investments will drive higher adoption of technology,” Gupta added.
IT spending image via Shutterstock
