What Healthcare IT Professional Should Know!

Is it fair to state that your level of involvement in the healthcare industry dictates how much you know about the industry? Well, if you believe this - here’s a quick summary of three important areas that all IT professional should understand and be able to present in three minutes or less.

The global healthcare industry - is a huge market with high growth potential in many countries

• The global annual healthcare expenditure is over U.S. $3 trillion (8% world gross domestic product).
• The U.S. annual healthcare spending is approximately $2 trillion and could consume close to 20% of GDP within a decade.
• The annual expenditure for healthcare in the world is over U.S. $3 trillion, or roughly 8% of the world's gross domestic product (GDP). In the U.S., annual healthcare spending is now approximately $2 trillion, occupying the largest sector of the nation's economy.

The potential and challenges – within healthcare, not only IT related

• Potential: New medical technologies and treatments; new options for consumers, providers, and payers
• Challenges: Unsustainable cost-demand imbalance, changing demographics
• Historically under-investment in information technology: Capital constraints and lack of incentives major causes (For example, most patients’ clinical records are still on paper.)

• Providers: Physicians, hospitals, nurses, and others
• Payers: Government payers and private payers such as health insurance companies
• Consumers
• Employers: In the U.S., payment by employers for the bulk of healthcare coverage