IT in healthcare grows

The growth of IT in the healthcare sector is expected to record a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18% by 2010, according to the The Economic Times.

Anurag Dubey, industry analyst of Health IT and Healthcare Delivery Practice at Frost & Sullivan, South Asia and Middle East, says the quality of healthcare services is changing globally and one of the key drivers for this change is the use of IT by healthcare providers.

Earlier, there were few hospitals that adopted IT to improve efficiency and provide better services. But, in past two years, the number of private hospitals has increased at a good pace," he said.

Infineon Technologies expects to supply 500 000 chips to the largest patient healthcare card system in the US in 2008, reports Forbes.com.

Siemens, Mount Sinai Medical Centre and Elmhurst Hospital Centre are jointly launching a health smart card alliance to deploy up to 1.2 million cards that store patients' demographic and medical data.

The cards will help link 45 affiliated and related medical facilities in the New York metro area.

Rethinking and re-engineering the practice of health should not be ignored, as implementing new IT will not solve all the problems alone, according to Healthcare Republic.

The latest Journal of Information Technology discussed the NHS and its continuing programme; the National Programme for IT (NPfIT).

It suggests the current approach to IT investment in NPfIT is threatening both its timely completion and its ultimate success.