[BreachExchange] A Look At Healthcare IT Trends

[Audrey McNeil]

https://www.healthitoutcomes.com/doc/a-look-at-healthcare-it-trends-0001

As new technology increasingly is adopted by healthcare organizations, a
variety of trends are emerging to enable better care. Here’s my take on
what healthcare IT industry constituents can expect this year.

New Wave Of Cyberattacks

The value of stolen patient records in the dark net has gone down from $300
to less than $10, but the determination of hackers to exploit healthcare
organizations hasn’t. In 2017, they showed us a preview with WannaCry and
Petya. In 2018, they will continue to use off-the-shelf tools and phishing
attacks to trick unsuspecting users and cause havoc. Healthcare
organizations should expect a new wave of cyberattacks and brace for a
continued and difficult battle.

As the saying goes, security is a state of mind, not the end state.
Healthcare organizations should go beyond compliance and checklists and
take on the enemy with sophisticated defense — identify your most critical
data, figure out all possible attack vectors, and use the latest tools and
the best security folks you can find to protect your data.

More AI And Machine Learning

The world of AI and machine learning is evolving quite rapidly and becoming
more advanced and affordable. We’re seeing an unprecedented increase in
machine-generated data from sensors and other equipment. We have more
public and private data sets to aggregate and make sense from. We have
unprecedented access to cloud and distributed computing. All this will
enable more intelligent applications that can look at the big picture and
solve hard problems in healthcare — better early interventions, better
treatments, better care.

More Conversational Interfaces And Voice-Enabled Applications

The era of mobile applications is coming to an end, and voice is taking
off. We’ve already seen many voice assistants providing meaningful home
care. That combined with more sensors and AI will give rise to a new wave
of intelligent voice assistants that can take healthcare to the next level
and significantly improve the overall continuum of care for patients. 2018
will be an exciting year for technology as many pieces of the puzzle come
together to make intelligent assistants more practical, affordable and
real. They won’t replace doctors or nurses, but they will help monitor and
administer care much more effectively at a lower cost.

Increasing Effective Capacity

In 2018, health systems should begin to see the need to re-evaluate the
mathematical foundation used to manage their day-to-day operations — and
upon which the quality of the patient experience relies. All the macro
forces in healthcare (more patients, older patients, higher incidence of
chronic illnesses, lower reimbursements, push toward value-based care, and
tighter operating and capital budgets) indicate an urgent need to be able
to do more with existing assets without upsetting patient flow. A strong
mathematical foundation will enable a level of operational excellence to
help health systems increase their effective capacity for treating more
patients while simultaneously improving the overall flow and reducing wait
time.

Continued Chaos

A look back at 2017 says this: 2018 will be another year where payers,
providers, and pharmaceutical and life sciences organizations face
continued legislative and regulatory upheaval as consumers demand more,
better access. Healthcare providers will continue to feel pressure to
accelerate their companies’ transformations using advanced data science and
mobile technologies.

Those who invest in health IT ahead of the curve, focus on better utilizing
the mountains of data they strain to secure and look to connect systems as
never before will emerge from an uncertain year better positioned to
succeed and prosper.
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