A new report released by International Data Corporation (IDC) shows that spending on IT services and products among healthcare providers in Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, and the UAE will grow by 70% over the next five years.
Announcing the report, IDC says ICT investments will boost in the four core healthcare markets of Middle East and Africa. It shows that Saudi Arabia is the fastest-growing healthcare IT market in the MEA region, forecast to expand by around 13.4% annually, followed by United Arab Emirates.
The reports shows that healthcare is the second-fastest-growing sector after government in terms of IT spending while spending on mobile devices and networking equipment will contribute significantly to overall hardware spending growth in all the four markets.
It indicates that spending priorities will be strongly driven by healthcare policy mandates and efficiency improvement needs. In the context of a pronounced shortage of IT expertise among healthcare organizations, IDC Health Insights expects the demand for IT services to continue to rise in all four markets. In fact, IT services will be the fastest growing segment of the healthcare providers’ market, with particularly intense growth projected in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Additional highlights from the data about the four countries also includes data about the software segment that indicates system infrastructure software still accounts for the largest share of total external IT spending and clinical information systems make up the smallest share but will post the fastest growth at 13.5% annually.
The announcement from IDC also quotes Nino Giguashvili, senior research analyst for IDC Health Insights as saying, “All of the four markets are set to grow at an impressive rate. While these markets present exceptional opportunities to healthcare IT suppliers across the whole ecosystem, it is the right time to focus on mobile solutions to healthcare providers’ organizational needs, and MEA’s healthcare challenges overall”.
IDC’s Middle East and Africa Healthcare Provider 2013 IT Spending and 2014–2018 Forecast provides IT spending data and forecasts for 15 technologies and five countries (Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates). It is designed to help IT suppliers identify short- and long-term opportunities and for health providers to assess the state of the market.
