Forces external to the healthcare industry, such as an aging population and worker shortages, are pushing the industry to find alternative approaches to current business practices that are expected to rely heavily on telecommunications services.
According to the report, "Telecommunications, IT, and Healthcare: Wireless Networks, Digital Healthcare and the Transformation of US Healthcare 2006-2011," much of the high costs inherent in the current system 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. Telecommunications can bridge these proximity gaps as well as provide a normalized set of baseline data that can remain secure and yet be shared among healthcare workers.
Healthcare has become one of the fastest growing vertical markets for IT and telecommunications services. Insight projects that the U.S. healthcare telecommunications services market will grow at a compounded rate of 5.4 percent, from $6.3 billion in 2006 to $8.1 billion in 2011. Spending on wireless technology is expected to grow at more than twice the overall rate.
"Population trends and advances in clinical treatment technology are pushing the healthcare industry to look at new delivery systems," says Insight Research president Robert Rosenberg. "Because the high costs inherent in the current system are related to the proximity of the patient and provider, exploiting broadband network services is a cost-effective way to reach patients where they live and pull costs out of the current healthcare system," Rosenberg concluded.
