By Erin Dietsche | DEC 13, 2017
A new survey out of the Center for Connected Medicine and the Health Management Academy examines which technologies healthcare executives plan to invest in and prioritize in the year ahead.
The research targeted 35 health systems in the United States and had a response rate of 69 percent. Conducted from September through November 2017, it included CIOs, CMOs and CNOs.
Titled “Top of Mind for Top U.S. Health Systems 2018,” the report shows that cybersecurity is a top issue for executives. Ninety-two percent of participants indicated plans to increase cybersecurity spending next year. Additionally, two-thirds said they are adding non-C-Suite security staff to their teams.
Consumer-facing technology was another area of interest. Fifty-four percent of respondents are integrating patient-generated data into their EHRs, and another third expect to begin doing so next year.
Most individuals (88 percent) believe patient portals are the source of patient-generated data that will have the most value for health systems in 2018. Other notable sources that are expected to produce value include home monitoring equipment (46 percent), mobile health apps (21 percent) and wearables (17 percent).
Virtual care is becoming a hot topic despite problems standing in the way of widespread adoption. Only 39 percent of health systems currently receive reimbursement for virtual care, and 45 percent get reimbursed for remote monitoring. Yet among those not being reimbursed, numerous respondents anticipate being reimbursed in 2018 for virtual care (71 percent), remote monitoring (17 percent) and other telemedicine services (71 percent).
Overall, leaders see a variety of benefits to remote monitoring, including improving quality and safety (75 percent), lowering costs (46 percent) and meeting increased demand from patients (42 percent).
Predictive analytics also made the cut. In 2018, health system executives believe predictive analytics will provide value in the areas of patient quality and safety (71 percent), readmissions (71 percent) and clinical decision support (71 percent). Respondents also cited supply chain management, population health and cancer care as areas where analytics tools could deliver assistance.
But challenges remain. Sixty-seven percent listed resource allocation as a problem preventing predictive analytics implementation. Fifty-four percent cited standardizing the clinical practice, and 38 percent noted that system culture can be a challenge.
Naturally, a list of 2018 priorities wouldn’t be complete without a mention of artificial intelligence. But AI isn’t as important as some might think. The majority (63 percent) of respondents said implementing AI solutions is a “low” or “very low” priority for the upcoming year.
Still, the technology is being applied to a number of fields. Clinical decision support (59 percent), population health (46 percent), disease management (42 percent) and readmissions (41 percent) are the most popular areas where health systems are installing or planning to install AI.