Healthcare Now Represents Billion-dollar Opportunity For IT Firms: Study

New technologies are continuously disrupting the healthcare industry, creating a billion-dollar growth opportunity for information technology firms to explore, according to a new report from Frost & Sullivan.
The report shows that IT firms armed with artificial intelligence (AI), automation, augmented reality, virtual reality, and big data analytics solutions are most likely to succeed in the healthcare sector in the years to come.
“Data will become the new biology and leveraging it will unlock future solutions,” said the research firm in its Vision 2025 – Future of Healthcare study.
“The increasing number of information sources and information sharing among care teams, patients, families, providers, and payers is what will allow for better care coordination and advanced analytics that enable improved patient health outcomes,” said Siddharth Shah, an analyst with the research firm.
As external technological developments and non-healthcare entities enter the industry, the challenge is two-fold for participants: no control over advancements and competition from non-healthcare tech experts. Therefore, IT in the vertical is expected to see tremendous growth, at a CAGR of 16.1% until 2025, even as the total industry growth is likely to average at 5.6% during the period.
“The combined effect of transformational shifts and new opportunities will facilitate the emergence of new business models in the industry,” the research firm noted.
The sector has long been suffering from a skills shortage, forcing companies to hunt for technological tools to stay efficient and agile. A recent Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO study also foresees a sudden surge in IT investment by pharmaceutical companies in the near future.
More than half of respondents in the survey said they were expecting increases in IT budgets in the next 12 months.
“Healthcare organizations have significant operational cost pressures now more than ever, and there is an opportunity to close that gap quickly with disruptive technologies and analytic tools,” said Vince Vickers, KPMG LLP’s healthcare technology leader.