Dubai, October 7, 2015

Healthcare providers in the Middle East and North Africa will spend US $2.73 billion on IT products and services in 2015, according to Gartner, Inc. This forecast includes spending by healthcare providers (which includes hospitals and physicians' practices) on internal services, software, IT services, data center, devices and telecom services.

Telecom services, which include fixed and mobile telecom services, will remain the largest overall spending category throughout the forecast period within the healthcare providers sector with an expected market size of US $1 billion in 2015.

IT services spending is estimated to reach US $361 million in 2015. Consulting, with an estimated market size of US $93 million in 2015, and implementation, with an estimated market size of US $96 million in 2015, will be two of largest sub-segment within IT services in 2015.

Software spending will increase 4.9 percent over last year to reach US $394 million in 2015.

Internal services will grow 5 percent in 2015 to be a US $497 million market in 2015. Internal services refers to salaries and benefits paid to the information services staff of an organization. The information services staff includes all company employees that plan, develop, implement and maintain information systems.

“The private sector in the Middle East and North Africa is ramping investments in building hospitals, clinics, and by forming partnership with international centres of excellence from the U.S. and Europe. Chronic disease management is a major priority in the area, “said Anurag Gupta, research vice president at Gartner. “This demand of healthcare within the local population, and growth in building local credentials to attract medical tourists, is deriving corresponding investments in ICT.”

Further information on healthcare providers sector IT spending is available in the Gartner report: Forecast: Enterprise IT spending for the Healthcare Providers Market, Worldwide, 2013-2019, 2Q15 Update. The forecasts provides total enterprise IT spending, including internal spending and multiple lines of detail for spending on hardware, software, IT services, and telecommunications for vertical industries and 43 countries within seven geographies.