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Multiple experts predict blue skies for those who spend IT dollars--and those who make them, too. According to the Jan. 6 issue of Forbes, healthcare IT spending will hit $60 billion this year. What's more, healthcare IT investment as a proportion of total revenue--historically only 2 percent to 3 percent in healthcare--will reach an "unprecedented" 5 percent or higher next year, say analysts at Capgemini. This percentage is still lower than in industries such as manufacturing, banking and retail, which typically spend between 7 percent and 10 percent of revenue on IT. Capgemini says almost all of the new IT spending in hospitals will be for clinically oriented systems such as computerized physician order entry and digitized radiology applications.

Spending by state and local governments for healthcare IT will increase by 50 percent over the next five years, from $6 billion in 2005 to more than $9 billion in 2009, according to Input Inc., a Reston, Va., market research firm. Clinical and administrative efficiencies, as well as continued investment in Medicaid management information systems, will drive the projected increase.

These predictions compare favorably against predictions for modest spending on general IT systems. A survey of more than 1,300 IT decision-makers in companies with at least 1,000 employees revealed employer spending for IT will increase by an average of 3.9 percent in 2005--up from just 1.7 percent a year ago--according to Forrester Research. CIO's Tech Poll results reported in January were rosier, with CIOs predicting growth of 6.7 percent over the next 12 months. Security remains a high priority for spending increases in 2005, according to both sources.

CIOs expect a modest uptick in investment in IT human resources in the first quarter of 2005, according to a survey by Robert Half Technology. Nine percent of the 1,400 CIOs surveyed at companies with at least 100 employees plan to hire IT staff in the first quarter--6 percent ahead of the year-ago projection. Right along with hiring, IT salaries are looking up, too, with IT specialists expecting as much as 15 percent increases over the next three years, according to a META Group study.