18 April 2015 | News | By BioSpectrum Bureau
APAC is the fastest growing market for healthcare IT:F&S
Pharma and medical device companies are leveraging IT tools for business model transformation
Singapore: In its recent report, Frost & Sullivan (F&S) elaborated that APAC is the fastest growing market for healthcare information technology across the world. Within APAC, after Japan, Australia is the second largest market for health technology adoption.
Public hospitals are the highest and the most frequent spenders on healthcare IT solutions, said Ms Natasha Gulati, industry manager, Connected Health, Asia Pacific, Frost & Sullivan. She stated that however, Australia's smaller hospitals in rural and remote areas hardly spent anything on health IT solutions.
Ms Gulati noted that pharma and medical device companies too were moving towards data driven models and are leveraging IT tools for business model transformation. She further added that Australia is a growing market for cloud solutions and services, and digital hospitals will be the mainstay of Australia's future hospitals.
"Health system fragmentation, resulting in continued episodic care, can be reduced through integrated information systems. Health IT penetration in the country is expected to continue to rise, but mainly in the form of facility upgrades and hi-tech adoption across existing hospitals. Dependable and reliable health data sharing is still a distant dream for Australia, although concerted efforts in this direction have begun," said, Ms Gulati.