The Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) through its attached agencies, the Board of Investments (BOI) and the Export Marketing Bureau (EMB), organized a Philippine delegation to the 2022 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) annual conference and exhibition held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida last March 14-18, 2022. HIMSS is the premier gathering for professionals and corporations in the global digital health ecosystem. This year, over 75,000 US-based and international delegates attended HIMSS. A total of 985 companies and countries participated as exhibitors, including the Philippines.
The Philippine pavilion set up by the BOI, EMB, and the Healthcare Information Management Association of the Philippines (HIMAP) showcased nine of the leading Philippine-based companies that provide services and solutions integral to the Healthcare Information Management System (HIMS) workflow. The following Philippine-based companies were represented in HIMSS 2022: Visaya KPO, DynaQuest Technology Services Inc., Connext Global Solutions, HYBrain Development Corporation, ADEC Innovations, Inspiro, Advanced World Solutions, Pointwest Innovations Corporation, and Phoenix Virtual Solutions.
This Philippine participation to HIMSS was made possible through the government’s partnership with HIMAP headed by its president, Mr. Vincent Remo. When asked on the prospects of HIMS
in the Philippines, Commercial Counselor Kenneth Yap of the Philippine Trade and Investment Center in Washington, D.C. (PTIC-WDC) said, “the IT-BPM industry is a pillar of the Philippine economy and HIMS is the most promising sub-sector employing almost 200,000 workers and one of the fastest growing segments of the IT-BPM industry.”
The promotional talk of DTI Undersecretary for Competitiveness and Innovation Group Rafaelita Aldaba and ADEC CEO James Donovan, which highlighted the incomparable benefits of conducting Healthcare Information Management Service (HIMS) business in the Philippines generated a great deal of buzz particularly with companies looking for offshoring alternatives to India and South America. Undersecretary Aldaba mentioned that “the key ingredient to our success in the HIMS industry are the Filipino workers who have the skills, the dedication, and the high level of trainability making us attractive to foreign investors.”
The Philippine IT-BPM industry grew consistently from 2017 to 2020, seeing headcount progressively increase from 1.17M to 1.32M, which translated to a surge in revenues from $23.4B to $26.7B. In 2019, the Philippine HIMS sector generated $2.96 billion in revenue and provided jobs to over 143,000 individuals. Despite the pandemic, the Philippine HIMS industry revenues are projected to grow by 7.3% to 10.8% in 2022.
All indications point to the resounding success of Philippine participation in HIMSS 2022. The outcome of HIMSS 2022 was remarkable in terms of measurable achievements as the tireless efforts of the nine Philippine companies generated up to 300 sales leads. No less than 30 of these potential clients are considered tier-one or “hot” leads with near certain prospects of conducting business with the Philippines. It is estimated that these leads will eventually generate around $30M in combined revenues for the Philippine-based HIMS companies that were
showcased at HIMSS 2022. The success of this year’s delegation paves the way for an even bigger Philippine participation in next year’s HIMSS conference which will be held in Chicago, Illinois.
The DTI’s offices in Los Angeles, New York, Silicon Valley, and Washington, D.C., USA will continue to extend their full support to US-based companies interested to do HIMS operations in the Philippines.