We’ve touched on just how much the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated innovation for hospitals in previous blogs. As we all look forward and to life beyond the pandemic, it is time for healthcare leaders to leverage emerging healthcare IT trends.
According to a recent Accenture report there are five trends to watch:
Accenture surveyed 399 healthcare executives across six countries to arrive at their results
One – Stacking Technology
Prior to the pandemic, very few Healthcare organizations treated their business and technology strategies as one collective strategy. As we work through the pandemic, we are seeing many healthcare organizations leverage several health IT platforms to give them a more personalized approach to tech-enabled healthcare. 87 percent of executives agree that their organization’s business and technology strategies are becoming inseparable. Why? We are seeing that these organizations are never a ‘one size fits all’ and they need more choices that allow each department to leverage technology that match their value proposition, which is where stacking technology comes into play.
Stacking technology is essentially investing in ‘core’ digital technologies- mobile, analytics, social, and cloud. Investing in a solid foundation will allow organizations to develop and build a sound and competitive technology stack.
Questions organizations should be asking themselves: Is your healthcare organization ready to be a technology leader? How are you creating a competitive edge with your tech choices? And how will the new technology change the relationship with patients and employees?
Two – Digital Twins
A digital twin is a machine learning program that uses real-world data to create predictions or simulations of how physical objects will be affected by data. At the onset of the pandemic, we all saw supply chain breakdowns which accelerated adoption of digital twins that can monitor, simulate, and streamline data from devices. There continues to be significant growth in digital twin technologies – IoT, data streaming, 5G; these technologies are enabling a new generation of healthcare intelligence. Over 25 percent of executives reported that their organizations are experimenting with digital twins in 2021, and over 66 percent expect their investment to increase over the next three years.
Much of healthcare is dependent on supply chain partners, collaborators, and in some cases the government. Digital twins allow us to get a big picture of what is happening by creating living models of their facilities, supply chains, and medical products.
Questions organizations should be asking themselves: Is your organization ready for digital twin expansion? And how can digital twins help your innovation process?
Three – Become an Innovator
Natural language processing, platforms that work on low-code, and artificial intelligence automation give hospital leaders the capabilities to make the changes they see fit. As these become more democratized, it opens more possibilities for healthcare workers to become innovators. Healthcare traditionally lags in digital technology innovation, but it also opens the door for organizations to fill in this gap – Eighty-four percent of healthcare executives said they train employees to customize technology at an individual level, which can lead to less turnover and more effective workflows. High performing employees prefer working for tech leading companies.
Questions organizations should be asking themselves: Is your organization ready to take advantage of rise of technology democratization? How are you training your staff to think innovatively? How can democratized tech make your departments more effective?
Four – Bring Your Own Environment
The pandemic changed a lot of things, but nothing changed faster and greater than people’s longstanding views on how and where work gets done. Healthcare was hit especially hard as nearly all organizations had to shift their workforces – some went to work on the front lines while others had to navigate working from home, seemingly overnight. Fast forward a year and half and healthcare has come a long way- they saw rapid rollouts of collaborative technology to make remote work and care possible and even expanded on solutions that were in the works, such as telehealth models. If we choose to stick with a ‘virtual first’ approach, even after the pandemic is over, it could create new opportunities to leverage emerging technologies, all of which has shown improved patient satisfaction, addresses provider burnout, and provides quality outcomes for patients with lower costs.
Questions organizations should be asking themselves: How is your organization making remote work sustainable? And how is staff responding to remote work?
Five – Multiparty Systems
The pandemic revealed how fragile companies are that don't have a network of resources and partnerships. Healthcare has made investments in their digital transformation technology but very few organizations have altered the way they partner. The pandemic is, and has, been changing that. More and more organizations are opting to deploy multiparty systems that leverage shared data to create a platform that is safe and adaptable. Partnering to form blockchain platforms, revenue models, or databases are a few ways hospitals can increase efficiency through collaboration.
Questions organizations should be asking themselves: Is your organization ready to take part in a multiparty system? And which business relationships will be transformed as a result?
Here at Extract Systems, we are strong supporters of innovation, transforming partnerships, and leveraging new technology to make better use of your data. We promote interoperability by taking all of the incoming paper and images you receive, and turning them into actionable, discrete data. If you would like to learn more about the solutions, we have please reach out today.
Source:
https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/PDF-156/Accenture-Digital-Health-Techvision-2021.pdf#zoom=40
About the Author: Taylor Genter
Taylor is the Marketing Specialist at Extract with experience in data analytics, graphic design, and both digital and social media marketing. She earned her Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Marketing at the University of Wisconsin- Whitewater. Taylor enjoys analyzing people’s behaviors and attitudes to find out what motivates them, and then curating better ways to communicate with them.