Facts on Healthcare Market Information

For investment opportunities in health care, reliable sources can provide information about trends, patient preferences and health-care spending. As medical care continues to evolve worldwide, data can help investors make informed choices.

Health Information Technology

• In the U.S., hospitals invest millions of dollars in health information technologies to comply with federal mandates for electronic health records, and increasingly computerized clinical functions. On a worldwide scale, Healthcare IT News managing editor Mike Miliard estimates health information technology investment dollars in the billions.

Medical Tourism

• An estimated 60,000 to 85,000 Americans per year seek inpatient care in other countries, with unknown numbers also receiving outpatient care, say medical tourism researchers T. Ehrbeck, C. Guevara and P. Mango. The American Hospital Association cites a forecast as many as 1.6 million Americans traveling to foreign countries for medical care by 2012.

Pharmaceuticals in Europe

• By 2012, the market for over-the-counter medications in Central and Eastern European countries will grow to exceed $15 billion, predicts pharmaceutical market analyst Agnieszka Stawarska.

Complementary and Alternative Medicine

• The National Institutes of Health report that four in 10 (almost 90 million) U.S. adults use some form of complementary and alternative medicine such as acupuncture, dietary interventions, yoga, chiropractic care and natural products.