Healthcare | Thursday 14 May, 2015 8:37 am |

- Healthcare providers in the Middle East and North Africa will spend US $2.86 billion on IT products and services in 2015, an increase of 0.8 percent over 2014 revenue, according to Gartner, Inc. This forecast includes spending by healthcare providers (includes hospitals and physicians' practices) on internal services, software, IT services, data center, devices & telecom services.

Telecom services, which include fixed and mobile telecom services, will remain the largest overall spending category throughout the forecast period within the healthcare providers sector with an expected market size of US $1.2 billion in 2015.

Software spending in 2015 will increase 8.3 percent over last year to reach US $410 million. Internal services will grow 6 percent to reach US $502 million in 2015. Internal services refer to salaries and benefits paid to the information services staff of an organization. The information services staff includes all company employees that plan, develop, implement and maintain information systems. IT services spending is estimated to be US $354 million in 2015. IT services spending will be led by growth in business process outsourcing (BPO), software support and consulting.

“Various countries across the regions are in different stages in their healthcare technology adoption curve. Saudi Arabia, which places a top priority on healthcare, has a long term plan for integrating information technology across existing infrastructure and new greenfield projects. UAE is expanding focus on achieving coordination across various healthcare stakeholders and in generating efficiency in delivering care, while keeping patient care at the center,” said Dr Anurag Gupta, research vice president at Gartner. ”Several new hospital and specialty care facilities are opening up across the region, and we expect continued technology investments in core care automation technologies, such as electronic health records, digital radiology and also various other decision support technologies like analytics.”

Further information on Health care Providers sector IT spending is available in the Gartner report: Forecast: Enterprise IT Spending for the Healthcare Providers Market, Worldwide, 2013-2019, 1Q15 Update. The report is available on Gartner's website at http://www.gartner.com/document/3029225.The forecasts provides total enterprise IT spending, including internal spending and multiple lines of detail for spending on hardware, software, IT services, and telecommunications for vertical industries and 43 countries within seven geographies.

About Gartner
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. The company delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is the valuable partner to clients in approximately 10,000 distinct enterprises worldwide. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, USA, and has 6,800 associates, including more than 1,500 research analysts and consultants, and clients in 90 countries.