India fastest growing healthcare IT market in Asia: report

India has the fastest growing healthcare IT market in Asia, with an expected growth rate of 22 per cent, followed closely by China and Vietnam, says a report. The total market for IT in the healthcare industry in Asia was $2.95 billion (Rs 12,095 crore) in 2006, and is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.1 per cent to reach $4.83 billion (around Rs 19,803 crore) by 2010, says a Springboard Research report.

Surprisingly, Australia, probably the most developed market in the region and the second largest, is the fourth fastest growing market.

Many of the more developed Asian markets such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Korea had a much lower percentage of healthcare IT spending than the emerging markets, but still managed to provide high quality healthcare services to their populace, the report said.

Jonathan Silber, research manager for Springboard Research, said, "While you can see a definite split in trends and spending patterns by the developed and developing countries, even within these groups there is further fragmentation that increases the challenge for IT vendors. For example, you have a mature country such as Australia that is a larger market, yet growing faster than many of the emerging markets due to trends unique to Australia. We are seeing more unique drivers across countries, so local strategies are even more important in Asia."

The Asian emerging markets continued to invest in infrastructure for their healthcare sector, with a broader push for community care and increased care in rural areas. Huge sums of money were being spent in India and China in this regard and, as mentioned above, many of the emerging markets in Asia were spending more on healthcare as a percentage of the total IT spending than the more developed countries, the report pointed out.

According to the report, in the more developed markets, the shift from clinical to patient-focused care is driving the technology needs of healthcare providers, who continue to invest in improving efficiencies and sharing information across providers. Other drivers in many of the developed countries include increased regulations, privacy restrictions in some countries, replacement of legacy infrastructure, as well as ageing populations.