Healthcare Technology and News: Healthcare Industry to Spend $55.5 Billion on Telecommunications Services in the Next Five Years

Despite the current economic recession, the healthcare industry in the U.S. is set to spend $55.5 billion on telecommunications services over the next five years, according to a new market research study from Insight Research Corporation.

 

The report, "Telecommunications, IT and Healthcare: Wireless Networks, Digital Healthcare and the Transformation of US Healthcare, 2009-2014,"reveals that external forces like the Congressional push to rein in US healthcare costs, an aging population, and worker shortages are encouraging the industry to find alternative approaches to current business practices.

 

With the current system, most of the high costs are related to the proximity of the patient and provider, as well as to the archaic administrative systems used to manage records and exchange information.

 

Fiber optics, wireless access and digital transmission will transform healthcare networks and at the same time extend care to remote patients through telemedicine applications as well as provide a normalized set of baseline data that remains secure and that can also be shared among healthcare workers.

 

According to Robert Rosenberg, president of Insight Research, the company has updated its five-year forecasts to reflect current recessionary spending and specifically reduced its forecast by approximately $500 million in 2008 and $1 billion in 2009 to reflect the impacts of the recession.

 

In the long-term, however, it is expected that spending on telecommunications for healthcare will approach the levels in Insight Research’s previous forecasts, as consumers continue to spend more of their income on healthcare services.

 

The 2.6 trillion US healthcare system is made up of hospitals, physicians, pharmaceutical companies and insurance providers. The market analysis study by Insight Research found out that spending by the US healthcare industry on telecommunications services will grow at a compounded rate of 10.2 percent over the forecast period. This means, the amount spend will increase from $7.1 billion in 2009, to $11.6 billion in 2014 as the number of healthcare locations expands by 14 percent and the healthcare employment rate increases 2.5 times faster than the total national employment rate.