Jenifer Jones

Research Director

Healthcare

Info-Tech Research Group

Analyst Perspective

Healthcare organizations are facing tremendous strain as they provide care for an aging demographic and respond to the pandemic. Patients are expecting more technology-enabled care options. New entrants into the healthcare marketplace such as Oracle, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple are poised to transform healthcare delivery. Health IT leaders must know which innovations and trends will influence providers and administrators. This trends report is focused on how healthcare service can be improved with broader technology adoption to transform and become more automated, connected, and flexible.

Info-Tech’s approach focuses on an analyst’s investigation of strategic foresight, a methodology that helps the IT department and the business process what is happening in the organization’s external environment in a way that guides ideation and opportunity identification. As a methodology, strategic foresight flows from the identification of signals to clustering the signals together to form trends and uncover what is driving the trends to determine which strategic initiatives are most likely to lead to success at the industry level.

• Healthcare organizations are overwhelmed after three years of responding to the unprecedented challenges and disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Health IT leaders must learn about new trends and technologies to help providers provide excellent patient care.
• Transforming existing clinical workflows requires alignment between healthcare administrators and health IT leaders.

• Healthcare administrators often make the mistake of dismissing the role of IT when pursuing transformational changes.
• Health IT leaders must respond to unprecedented demands with reliable and secure service delivery.
• Identifying and considering viable technology trends is often a de-prioritized task for Health IT leaders, but it must remain a priority so they can continue to innovate.

• Guide healthcare organizations through options for digitally transforming service delivery.
• Help healthcare organizations identify and prioritize viable trends that can transform patient care and improve healthcare service delivery.
• Highlight the potential impact of health IT trends for healthcare business leaders.
• Provide a scan of feasible IT trends that will be important to continue to transform patient care.

INNOVATIONS IN PROVIDING INCLUSIVE PATIENT CARE

Progressive models of patient care are focused on prevention, a transition from standardized clinical models to personalized medicine.

Changing payment models. The focus is shifting focus from fee-for-service to value-based care that is centered on patient outcomes rather than transactional visits.

EXPECTATION OF PATIENTS AND PROVIDERS

Patients want a responsive culture. Many healthcare organizations are struggling to provide patients with a reliable digital experience that meets the expectations of the digital age.

Patients want to own their data. Healthcare organizations are struggling to provide patients with accurate information about their treatment, care, and costs.

TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE WORKING CONDITIONS

Exploit technology gains obtained during the pandemic to redefine care provision.

Analyze capacity and demand to match needs. During the pandemic clinical and non-clinical staff developed and refined virtual care delivery. Refine expectations related to the use of AI to improve real-time care.

• In-person care provided at an acute care hospital, skilled nursing facility, or primary care office.
• Inflexible and a mix of digital and paper-based referral processes.
• Expensive and complex flow of data/interfaces through EHR, EMR, and digital charting systems.
• Interoperability is limited in scope within regional health authorities, hospital networks, and primary care offices.
• Limited expansion of virtual care offerings.

• Active awareness of virtual care options and impactful initiatives such as contactless visits with providers and personalized care.
• Intense stress on healthcare workforce: 55% of frontline healthcare workers report burnout, with the highest rate of 69% among the youngest staff.
• Healthcare organizations are fighting to support their employees and retain clinical talent (“Future of Health,” Deloitte, 2022).
• A proactive approach for high-value implementations that support revenue diversification.

• Patient care that is omnichannel and hyper-personalized.
• Technology-enabled healthcare that is focused on the patient rather than the system.
• Technology solutions that are configurable and adaptable based on previous patient care encounters, convenience, and patient experience preferences.

• Attracting and retaining staff is a pervasive challenge for healthcare organizations. Identifying and using the right amount of automation can help them provide better patient care while retaining qualified staff.
• Leverage automation and virtual care to create effective care environments and differentiate the patient experience from that of competing healthcare organizations.
• Focus automation on the patient experience, creating value and building positive outcomes for patients.

• Expand connected care by integrating valuable information from EHRs onto mobile devices such as tablets, watches, and cellphones.
  
• Patients want more freedom to decide where to receive care. Patients who are supported by virtual care can be served using different modes of care such as telehealth, teleconsultation, telemedicine, etc.
• Experiment with new forms of virtual care that can help patients connect with providers without having to go to an acute care center. Develop workflows that support high-quality home care.

• Providers are seeking adaptable patient care options enabled by reliable medical devices.
• Care plans are enabled by personal devices that are secure and intuitive and support hyper-personalized care plans.
• Integrate consumer apps that remind patients to take medication, support lifestyle modification, and provide a connection to patient communities.

ADVANCED DATA ANALYTICS

The development of an advanced data analytics platform to support data-driven patient care is the foundational step necessary to support core transformation initiatives.

CYBERSECURITY

A robust cybersecurity program supporting internet of medical things (IoMT) implementations is critical to ensure organizational information and assets are protected against the onslaught
of various forms of attack.

DIGITAL FRONTLINES

Deployment of mobile devices and applications to assist providers with near-real-time data to support their daily operational tasks is essential to realize the benefits of the digital transformation of patient care.

HYBRID CLOUD INTEGRATION

A hybrid integration framework to support various integration patterns such as on-premises to on-premises, on-premises to cloud, and cloud to cloud is key to enabling health IT capabilities.

RESILIENT INFRASTRUCTURE

Manage technical debt through developing practices that support a resilient technology infrastructure. Implement an infrastructure that will enable your organization to adopt new technologies.

PROACTIVE CULTURE

Supporting a significant digital transformation requires an adaptive, committed, and skilled team. IT leaders must have the confidence that their team will support major technology implementations.

INTERNET OF MEDICAL THINGS

Patient engagement increased by IoMT devices

The integration of mobile into patient care toward an omnichannel approach opens the door for an integrated and holistic patient experience. Expansion of core networks to 5G and 6G connectivity will support healthcare organizations in deploying more IoMT.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Continued health system consolidation

Larger healthcare organizations that have managed to diversify patient offerings and have thrived during the pandemic are now expanding and looking to acquire smaller healthcare providers and expand service delivery.

HIGH-QUALITY HOME CARE

Personalized medicine appealing to demographic changes

Expanding virtual care into the realm of greater home care enabled by technology is estimated to reduce care costs by 30%. Clinical outcomes are improved and facilitate shorter average stays in acute care settings.

HEALTHCARE OF THE FUTURE

TRENDS REPORT

BUSINESS CONTEXT & IT STRATEGY

IT Strategy

Digital Strategy

Leverage this trends report for priorities that drive measurable top-line organizational outcomes and the unlocking of direct value.

The future will bring more trends and technologies, making it pivotal that your healthcare organization continue to establish itself as the disrupter and not the disrupted. You must establish a structured approach to innovation management that considers external trends as well as internal processes. Info-Tech’s Define Your Digital Business Strategy and Build a Business-Aligned IT Strategy blueprints give you the tools you need to effectively process signals in your environment, build an understanding of relevant trends, and turn this understanding into action.

Wearable Devices

• Movement detectors and sensors
• Pulse oximeters
• Drug pumps

Implantable Devices

• Swallowable camera capsules
• Embedded cardiac devices
• Implantable electrical devices
• Implantable nerve electrodes

Ambient Devices

• Motion sensors
• Room temperature sensors
• Pressure sensors
• Daylight sensors
• Door sensors

Stationary Devices

• Imaging equipment
• Computer tomography
• Magnetic resonance imaging
• X-ray
• Ultrasound

$42.5B by 2027 will be driven by investments in software that supports IoMT, including data analytics, network security, application security, remote device management, and bandwidth management (Complex & Intelligent Systems, 2022).

23% of US adults met the federal physical activity guidelines for exercise in the past 30 days. Patients are seeking fitness and wellness apps to control negative lifestyle behaviors (CDC, 2020).

$14B in venture capital dollars flowed to US digital health companies. There were 440 deals announced in 2021 alone (HIMSS, 2021).

• Improved communication pathways between patients, providers, and payers using IoMT devices for specific use cases such as chronic disease management, drug management, and lifestyle monitoring serve to bolster the aims of prevention and value-based care.
• Expanded integrations and the virtualization of more care pathways will require a high degree of collaboration between providers and digital health innovators. Collaboration across key stakeholders in a healthcare system improves health research and enables the delivery of innovative care.
• Empowered decision making draws on expanded analytics to improve convenient care. More data is being generated by connected devices and integrated into systems, and this data can be mined, managed, and analyzed to empower improved decision making.

• Implementing more IoMT comes with significant cybersecurity risks as it increases the attack surface for potential hacks and breaches.
• Data storage and retention of essential data points will require a flexible data strategy that is integrated and responsive to the maintenance needs of expanding data sets, presenting a challenge for healthcare leaders.
• High levels of privacy assurance for the data collected by IoMT devices is critical. Preserving trust in the data that is being used will require collaboration between providers and IT.
• Interoperability between patients, providers, and payers must be a priority and can be facilitated by open platforms that conform to commonly accepted data exchange standards.

• Identify the right mix of IoMT for your healthcare organization to enable experimentation and innovation.
• Expand the IoMT footprint with the objective to reduce prices related to providing direct patient care.
• Continually evaluate emerging technologies that will help your organization pursue a more connected, adaptable, and efficient healthcare service.
• Develop a patient data protection plan when expanding IoMT. There is a pervasive need to adopt due diligence related to patient privacy and security when exploring workflows and patient care.

• IoMT is rife with cybersecurity concerns related to the viability, feasibility, and longevity of applications.
• A future adoption of advanced communication technologies will require improvements in network connections to maintain synchronization and processing. Edge cloud and 6G networking solutions must be investigated and implemented in a way that facilitates a greater adoption of IoMT.
• Big data processing combined with cloud hosting represent an opportunity and a challenge. Healthcare IT leaders must be prudent when evaluating the terms and conditions they are signing on to with vendors to ensure there is adequate protection of patient data and that extraction of data from a cloud platform is not prohibitive to providing excellent patient care.

US$19.7 billion

Microsoft has purchased Nuance Communications, a leader in AI-based technologies, specifically voice recognition and natural language processing in healthcare settings. Nuance reports its tech is used by 77% of hospitals in the US.

US$12.9 billion

Spectrum Health and Beaumont Health joined in a “megamerger” that will create a health system of 22 hospitals, 305 outpatient facilities, and an insurance company.

US$13 Billion

UnitedHealth Group’s acquisition of Change Healthcare has been cited by the American Hospital Association, which alleges that there could be an unfair consolidation of healthcare data.

• Support deal planning and delivery by providing proactive and consistent communication throughout the M&A process. On the acquire side of a deal it is important that IT identify areas of overlap in roles in responsibilities and limit redundancies.
• Plan and budget for costs related to pre- and post-deal. Strict scrutiny of finances is a key component of M&A, and it is essential that IT leaders can clearly articulate the major expenses within IT. Be prepared to speak to budget questions and assist in the due diligence phase of a deal.
• Develop and sustain an in-house architecture practice that can accurately articulate the current technology environment. Sustaining an architecture practice will bring much-needed expertise to support a smooth transition between vendors and will support overall system transition.

• Maintain talent and ensure that your team has adequate resources. Depending on which side of the deal your team is on it is important to maintain in-house expertise to support the transition work. It is especially important to retain employees that have architecture expertise.
• Compliance and diligence related to data security is a crucial role in the deal closing activities. The Department of Health and Human Services reported that healthcare providers and payers reported 619 data breaches in 2021, a 36% increase from pre-pandemic levels (PwC, 2022).
• Often IT isn’t brought into an M&A deal early enough to plan for the size and complexity of the change. This problem is especially acute for geographically dispersed business units for whom collaboration and communication can be difficult.

• Develop a comprehensive strong strategic vision that is well communicated throughout the organization pre- and post-deal close.
• Ensure that clinical and functional leadership is aligned with the strategic direction of the merged organization.
• Identify and mitigate cultural differences between the two organizations and actively work to create a shared culture.
• Clearly communicate the rationale for decisions about the structure of the organization especially related to executive and mid-level leadership.
• Set explicit financial and non-financial goals to measure the success of the merged organizations.

• Implement best practices beginning with the project management office and maintain clear milestones and targets to track the progress from transaction close.
• The first 90 to 120 days are the most important to measure success of the deal. IT will be tasked with ensuring all significant technology capabilities, platforms, and applications are integrated.
• Critically review all software contracts and applications with an aim to engage in an application rationalization process to streamline critical vendor contracts.
• Develop progressive relationships and maintain open lines of communication with key stakeholders in the business.

60% of patients expect to be able to change or schedule a healthcare appointment, check medical records and tests, and refill medications online (“Next frontier,” McKinsey & Company, 2022).

$265 billion or more of Medicare spending is expected to be directed toward home care by 2025 (“Next frontier,” McKinsey & Company, 2022).

$96 billion growth over the last five years. The home health care industry has grown at an annualized rate of 2.2% (IBISWorld, 2022).

50% of providers indicated that wearable technologies helped in monitoring their patients (HIMSS, 2022).

• Home care that is convenient for patients and providers must be supported by technology that is intuitive and accessible. Supporting patients within the comfort of their home instead of in an acute care center will reduce overall healthcare costs.
• An explosion of virtual care during the pandemic proved that there is a demand to move away from traditional forms of in-clinic healthcare. Opportunities exist to expand virtual care to preventative care models and leverage new patient monitoring technologies to patients with chronic conditions to enable informed treatment decisions. Furthermore, there is an opportunity to automate testing, tracking, and diagnostic tools.
• Technology-enabled workflows that were used extensively during the pandemic must be tested and scaled without compromising quality. Home care must be provided in an innovative way that supports positive experiences for patients.

• Current care-at-home technological capabilities vary and range in sophistication. Patients and caregivers must be offered easy-to-use technologies, and there is an expectation that home care will be offered at a lower cost and higher quality.
• It is essential that home care is supported by providers that are committed to offering high-quality, convenient home care. Home Health Care News reported that the current turnover rate is 64%, which represents a huge challenge for home healthcare service providers.
• Healthcare systems are under a tremendous strain due to an aging demographic and responding to a pandemic. Access to high-quality healthcare in the home requires a highly technologically enabled workflow connecting an entire patient care team including physicians, nurses, personal support workers, and caregivers .

• Develop new business cases to explore where it makes sense to deploy a care-at-home model. Explore how telehealth, in-home care, and remote monitoring options can be added to the services offered to patients in your practice.
• Create a value-based home care strategy that involves specific use cases, expands technology-enabled services, and alters existing in-person workflows.
• Establish contracts with payers to reimburse visits and attract providers who are open to offering new types of technology-supported home care services.
• Fund and support systems that enable streamlined care coordination and communication between providers, patients, and caregivers.

• Work with business leaders to expand the case for technology-enabled investment options. Evaluate and present the case for expansion of virtual health and expand, where possible, new workflows.
• Collaborate with clinicians to deploy with a test group of patients, such as primary and specialty telehealth care, in-home care, or in-home infusion services.
• Leverage analytics platforms to identify and create use cases of patient populations that would benefit from home care service delivery.
• Develop a comprehensive reference architecture to identify and evaluate capabilities that can be used to support the expansion of high-quality homecare.

Clayton Gillett

Managing Partner
Global Services
Info-Tech Research Group

Duane Cooney

Executive Counselor
Global Services
Info-Tech Research Group

Tony Tardugno

Executive Counselor
Global Services
Info-Tech Research Group

Five anonymous Sources