There is general consensus today on the need of integrating Information Technology (IT) into the Health Sector for addressing problems of accessibility, affordability and information flow for appropriate decision-making process and promoting health and its determinants.

India’s population is 1.13 billion and still growing exponentially and so its economy. According to the WHO Country Report, 2006, India is the fourth largest economy in the world due to consistent economic growth over the last decade with its GDP being $4 trillion in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). Furthermore, India has also emerged as world’s leading service providers for Information Technology and related services.

In recent times, the IT industry has been one of the fastest-growing sectors in the Indian industries providing employment to a large section of the population in the country. Along with an increased presence of Indian IT companies across the globe, the Indian IT-ITES (IT Enterprise Solution) industry is broadly categorised into IT services and software, ITES-BPO and Hardware segments.

The industry continued to chart remarkable double-digit growth during the last decade. In the year 2005-06, it increased to Rs. 104,000 crore (US$ 23 Billion) from Rs. 77,300 crore (US$ 17 Billion), thus reporting an increase of 35% (34.54%).

According to a NASSCOM-McKinsey report (2002) annual revenue projections for India’s IT industry in 2008 are US $87 billion and market openings are emerging across four broad sectors - IT services, software products, IT enabled services, and E-businesses, thus creating a number of opportunities for Indian companies. It is projected that the IT export would account for 35% of total exports from India with software and IT enabled services contributing to 7.5% of the country’s GDP.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are not limited to the transfer of information only. In the developed world, in addition to relaying information, ICTs are used to promote better health behaviour,qualitative decision-making process, to promote exchange of information and solution exchange for self care and professional support, enhancing the effectiveness of health institutions.

Despite India emerging as the hub of IT and enabled services globally, it has lagged tremendously behind other countries in terms of integration and assimilation of IT in the Health Care System. Large corporate hospitals in India spend under 1% of their operating budget on IT, while spending is closer to 3% in the West . Expenditure on the IT is dismal in Public Health System in India.

In most of developing countries including India, innovative usage of IT in the health sector has been restricted to electronic medical records, hospital information systems, inventory management, Intranets, public networks, health decision-support systems, telemedicine, and community health information systems.

Regrettably, scaling-up of such innovations and piloting have not yet taken place adequately.

One of the recent attempts for integration of IT into Public Health System has been Integrated Disease Surveillance (IDSP) under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). IDSP has adopted a three-pronged strategy, namely – use of Information Technology, Strengthening of laboratories and enhancing investigations. Speci?c objectives of IDSP is to establish a decentralised district - based system of surveillance for communicable and non-communicable diseases so that timely and effective public health actions can be initiated in response to health challenges in the urban and rural areas.

The importance of information and communication technologies has been highlighted recently by the decision of the World Health Organization (WHO) "to take immediate steps for telematics to become part of its health-for-all strategy for the 21st century".