Pictures of the Future      Fall 2005

Digital Health – Facts and Forecasts

The market for information technology in hospitals grew from €2.4 billion to just under €3.5 billion in Europe alone between 2000 and 2004, according to a study conducted by Frost & Sullivan (F&S). "On average, European hospitals spend around 2 % of their total annual budget on IT," says Siddharth Saha, Manager for Healthcare IT and Medical Imaging at F&S. "Depending on the size of the clinic, this amount ranges between €20,000 and €2 million annually." In the U.S. as well, hospitals spend about 2 % of their total budget on IT, according to a study published by PricewaterhouseCoopers in April 2005. "In the past, around 80 % of all IT budgets were spent on administration and accounting systems. Today that figure is only 40 %, because in most hospitals administrative activities have been largely digitized," says Saha. Today the focus is on IT for medical applications. "It accounts for about 60 % of all IT expenditures, and in five years that figure will be 80 %," Saha adds.

Software in Hospitals. According to Saha, physicians’ wish lists begin with digital technology that improves the quality of care, such as electronic patient files or Computerized Physician Order Entry systems. CPOEs enable doctors to enter and transmit electronic prescriptions and order lab tests through their computers. In the U.S., inpatient clinic information systems and programs for managing diagnostic images (PACS, Picture Archiving and Communication System) have top priority.

Strong Growth in Asia. In recent years, China has made major investments in management systems and medical equipment. Saha expects that this emphasis will continue over the next three to four years. After that, however, he believes that there will be increased demand for PACS systems in China as well. In India, private clinics are playing a pioneering role in the development of clinical IT systems. "Over the past two to three years, Indian hospitals have primarily bought administration and accounting systems," says Saha. In the next phase, they will be introducing electronic prescriptions, followed by PACS systems. "At the moment, there are only a handful of such systems in India," says Saha.

Automatic Image Evaluation. According to Saha, automatic image evaluation systems (computer-aided detection, CAD) are the next logical step hospitals will take after investing in PACS systems. CAD systems analyze not only digitized X-rays and mammograms but also data from computer and magnetic resonance tomographs, automatically identifying pathological changes in tissue, such as tumors.