Sonal Desai, CRN, July 20, 2011, 1230hrs
Technology spending in healthcare has come a long way. According to Springboard Research, IT spending in the healthcare segment in India is expected to grow from $274.2 million in 2009 to $609.5 million in 2013, which represents a CAGR of 22 percent.
At 55 percent, hardware accounted for the largest proportion of the spending, followed by software and IT services at 25 percent and 20 percent respectively in 2009, as per Springboard figures.
The firm estimates that spending on basic computing products is expected to increase over the next five years, as hospitals build and upgrade their IT infrastructure. Also, new applications such as tele-medicine and e-prescriptions are driving the need for technology in this vertical as never before. IT investments in software would further increase with growing focus on integrated billing and online availability of patient records across hospitals.
Channel partners agree that IT spends have increased in the healthcare segment—the chief reasons being corporatization, expansion and PPP (Public Private Partnership) projects. “While small hospitals are tapping the public cloud platform, it is the large ones that are looking at end-to-end solutions to build IT infrastructure,” says L Ashok, MD, Futurenet Technologies.
Much of the growth and opportunity, however, lies in the private sector. An AMI study found that private healthcare contributes approximately three-quarters of the total healthcare expenditure in India. Private organizations play a significant role in providing healthcare services, especially in the urban sector. They expect strong financial backing and managerial expertise for running their operations. With the growth of middle class in India, there is a shift toward private healthcare services. The health insurance sector also offers great scope and reach for private firms, says Neha Jalan, Senior Associate, AMI Partners.
The Opportunities
According to a Springboard Research report, IBM, Dell and SAP are some of the key players active in the healthcare space in India, whereas Siemens Information Systems and Religare Technova are identified as emerging vendors. VMware is also actively working with its tier-2 partners for virtualization solutions. Through its AppUp service over the hybrid cloud, Intel, too, is promoting healthcare applications via tier-2 partners.
Exponential growth, expansion and adoption of technologies across all strata of healthcare are providing partners with opportunities to resell hardware, supply software and bundle services.
CRN presents some of these opportunities:
Reselling hardware: According to Springboard, the major constituent of the healthcare sector IT market is hardware, which is forecast to increase at a CAGR of 13.4 percent from $86.2 million in 2006 to $161.7 million by 2011. Partners say that there is a big opportunity to resell hardware, especially thin clients to clinics, nursing homes and mom-and-pop pharmacy stores. Corporate gifting is also picking up, feels Ankit Desai, Director, CDP India. Pharma companies place bulk orders for laptops and tablets to be given as return gifts to doctors after seminars.
Software: Springboard says that the packaged software market is forecast to increase at a CAGR of 31.3 percent. As per its research survey, 23 percent of the healthcare respondents currently use or plan to use cloud computing, citing reduced hardware infrastructure costs as well as simplified resource and server provisioning as primary reasons for adoption.
Old hospitals with aging infrastructure are renewing IT and driving growth for vendors and partners. For example, the Nanavati Hospital has replaced its rudimentary software with a new solution that integrates all departments and makes their information available on one screen. “Doctors and nurses now do not have to refer to papers for data on patient care. Everything is digitized,” says B Shankar, Director, Ashtech Infotech that executed the project.
The Sterling Hospital in Ahmedabad is another example of a hospital that has consolidated its infrastructure.
Automation: Jalan of AMI Partners is of the view that hospitals are striving for total automation through integrated software such as a Hospital Management System/Hospital Information Systems (HMS/HIS). While small hospitals use the basic modules such as patient records, patient registration, scheduling, billing, monitoring and inventory management, large, multi-specialty hospitals are also using advanced modules such as imaging, MIS and data management.
Virtualization: The Dinanath Mangeshkar Hospital in Pune has achieved a server consolation ratio of 6:1. “The server provisioning time these days is half-an-hour and the uptime is 99.99 percent. VMware started engaging with the healthcare ISV partners since an early stage,” says Ganesan Arumugam, Director, Partner Sales, VMware.
HMRI—a PPP project in Andhra Pradesh—is using virtual machines. Says Durganadh Venkata, Vice President Locuz Enterprise Solutions, which implemented the solution, “Hospital and medical records are digitized and available on the Internet. Earlier, HMRI used ten physical servers. We created around 50 virtual machines and the physical servers are being used to develop and test applications and for other IT infrastructure requirements.”
Wireless: SevenHills Health City, the first paperless hospital in the country, is using Wi-Fi extensively. “Our doctors access X-Rays, CT scans, electronic medial records, etc. on wireless,” says Suresh Kumar, GM, IT, SevenHills. The hospital has deployed 320 Ruckus access points (Zone Flex 7962 11n), two Zone Director controllers (the second one acts as a back-up to reduce downtime), and wired networking products from Cisco. Trinadha Kumar, CEO, IP Tech—the Ruckus partner that deployed the wireless—says that his company took three days to configure the Zone Director. “The challenge was to identify the placement of the nodes,” he says. IP Tech, which earned Rs 2-3 lakh as installation charges for access points, will also deploy Wi-Fi phones for doctors, nurses and the internal customers for emergencies. The Manipal and Apollo groups of hospitals have also deployed wireless technology in some areas.
RFID: Tracking patients and hardware in large hospitals becomes easy with RFID. “Patients with multiple ailments can be tracked to the respective departments by using RFID technology. It is also easier for doctors to identify reports and prescriptions as they can tie the digital file with the RFID tag on the patient’s wrist, notes Durganadh.
E-medicine and Tele-medicine: Since these projects normally involve work with government bodies, partners have so far steered away from these projects. Also, there is no clear data available from analysts on the role partners could play in such projects. A partner explains, “Although the government projects are very big, there are a lot of stake holders such as the ministry of health, state government, the insurance sector, etc., so it becomes difficult to operate. However, certain state governments such as Gujarat and now Bihar are opening up avenues in the health sector and things are changing. So, we are looking at PPPs such as EMRI and HMRI where the scope of work and participation is well defined.”
Other upcoming trends in the healthcare segment include IP surveillance, CRM solutions and video conferencing. Notes Shankar of Ashtech, “Hospitals have sensitive patient data and the volume of data is rising every day. This necessitates the need for stronger IP surveillance among hospitals.”
The mushrooming of wellness and lifestyle clinics has increased the demand for CRM solutions. Using the detailed information from CRM solutions, experts are better positioned to keep their clients cared for and happy.
Video conferencing is yet another trend picking up in the healthcare industry, partners say. While some partners have deployed a few boardroom solutions in hospitals, it is yet to be seen how the benefits will percolate down the hierarchy. Partners, however, are hopeful that doctors would leverage the VC opportunities to seek expert opinion of specialists globally to treat critical illnesses. |