IT spending by healthcare industry reached $98.1 bln in 2004

Increasing IT adoption rates within the US healthcare industry are expected to fuel the growth of the software market over the next five years, according to IDC. On average, the healthcare market will represent a 9.7% five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) within the packaged applications, infrastructure software, and application and development and deployment markets. Together, these markets totaled $98.1 bln in 2004. Professional services are estimated to account for the largest share of revenue generated within both the infrastructure software and application development and deployment markets by 2009, at $3.5 mln and $3.1 mln respectively.