India could become the most cost-effective healthcare market by 2015, according to an IBM report.
The global study, which was conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value, also suggests that the nation's medical tourism industry could flourish and India could become patients' first choice when seeking treatment abroad.
Commenting on the findings, Mohammad Naseem, head of IBM's Healthcare Practice in India, told Express Healthcare: "Currently, India is only a fringe player in the medical tourism market, though it seems to be making some high decibel noise."
Mr Naseem pointed out that other nations, such as Dubai, Thailand and Singapore, are "way ahead of India" in terms of medical tourism.
"India has a long way to go, notwithstanding projections about billion dollar revenues from medical tourism," he noted.
However, he also predicted that India had the potential to have the greatest impact on the industry due to a combination of "the large number of physicians in important positions globally, then investment in world-class infrastructure, plus the high component of information technology in healthcare".