Indian Hospitals to Boost IT Innovation Budgets as HealthTech Advances

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-EY HealthTech Survey 2025 indicates a significant upward trend in IT innovation budgets within Indian hospitals, anticipating a rise of 20-25% over the next few years. Already, nearly half of healthcare providers are allocating 20-50% of their budgets to digital innovation. The survey's findings, unveiled at the CII Hospital Tech 2025 Summit, emphasize the growing importance of automation in patient experience, clinical outcomes, and data-driven decision-making.

The report, titled "Unleashing digital momentum to shape the future of healthcare - enabling automation to enforce transformation," identifies challenges such as legacy systems, workforce readiness, and patient-centric delivery as critical hurdles hospitals need to overcome to become future-ready. A large majority, six in ten hospitals, plan to focus on building IT capabilities, with investments in BI tools and data lakes following close behind.

In terms of AI applications, 72% of healthcare providers prioritize AI for clinical documentation and data analysis, 64% focus on decision support systems, and 60% on imaging, revealing a strategic approach to enhance data visibility and clinical decision-making. Joy Chakraborthy, Chairman of CII HospiTech 2025, stresses the importance of collaboration among government, industry, and providers to bridge gaps and carve out the next wave of healthcare delivery. Moreover, Ankur Dhandharia, Partner at EY Parthenon India, highlights a shift towards scalable use cases for AI and analytics, steering Indian healthcare towards becoming truly 'future ready.'

(With inputs from agencies.)