Balancing urgency
and intention in healthcare’s evolving digital landscape
Talent shortages, mounting cost pressures, and shifting consumer trends pose serious challenges for healthcare organizations. In response, leaders are prioritizing investments across digital tools, technology, and analytics to resolve core challenges and position themselves for the future.
To better understand the strategic focus, outcomes, and potential roadblocks for digital, technology, and analytics investments, Huron surveyed 309 leaders nationwide.
Healthcare market research:
Digital, technology, and analytics
Where are organizations on
their digital journey?
Bolstering cybersecurity, developing consumer-facing tools, and driving interoperability across core technology are challenges for healthcare organizations. Still, the cost of implementation presents leaders with a paradox.
How can significant challenges be resolved when the cost of solving them is the main challenge?
Organizations are approaching that question from a new perspective, shifting their focus to the cost of not investing in critical technology advancements. Timely investments can set organizations on the path to growth and yield return on investment (ROI) when implemented correctly.
Concerns over cost skyrocket
Inside the report
Future of AI
Investment success and hurdles
Investment drivers
Core areas of digital transformation
Top priorities
Critical digital challenges
Most critical digital, tech, and
analytics challenges
59%
*
Cost of implementing digital, technology, & analytics
58%
Securing patient data and
medical devices
32%
56%
33%
Developing or enhancing
consumer-facing tools
56%
42%
Interoperability between core technology systems
55%
Technology to support
workforce automation
54%
25%
Providing communication tech between patients and family members
54%
Identifying high-value
datasets/data ownership
53%
36%
Utilizing data to drive decision
making and business strategy
27%
Managing risk and compliance
amidst changing regulation
52%
Redefining portfolio to gain
market share
*
*
53%
*
Today
Past research
*
No past data
When asked how leaders would describe their organization’s digital status, cost again emerges as the dominant concern. A full 61% agree that financial pressures are preventing investments in necessary technology — up 30% from last year.
61%
Financial constraints prevent us from investing in needed technology.
We often make technology investments with the purpose of generating cost savings.
57%
We are fully utilizing recent investments in technology.
56%
Our technology is right-sized to our needs.
55%
We often make technology investments with the purpose of catalyzing organizational growth.
54%
Our technology investments often achieve their projected ROI and outcomes.
51%
We often make technology investments with the purpose of preparing ourselves for future trends.
49%
Cybersecurity surfaces again with 43% noting it as a strategic investment driver. Improving patient outcomes (37%) and cost reduction (36%) follow, indicating that organizations are anxious to find ways to cost-effectively revamp care models.
What’s driving digital, technology, and analytics investments?
Top digital investment evaluation criteria
Top investment drivers
Regulatory requirements
Patient readmission
Patient long-term health outcomes
(e.g. mortality and morbidity)
Financial metrics and financial return on investment (ROI)
Patient satisfaction
2.
3.
1.
5.
4.
43%
Risk mitigation and cybersecurity
38%
Regulatory compliance
37%
Improving patient outcomes
36%
Cost
reduction
35%
Data-driven decision making
32%
Long term community impact
Leaders claim patient data security and compliance as their top focus. Data management drops in priority, possibly indicating increased digital maturity as organizations move on to cloud optimization and advanced analytics to support emerging tech.
Patient data security is top priority
Top digital transformation priorities (1-3 years)
63%
-1%
Security and compliance
62%
+9%
Cloud optimization
60%
+15%
Advanced analytics
58%
-10%
Data management
57%
N/A
AI/intelligent automation
54%
-8%
Improving interoperability
52%
+10%
Modernization of core systems
49%
+8%
Data warehousing
Past research
X%
Today
Core areas of digital transformation
Understanding the strategic landscape of digital, technology, and analytics across healthcare is one thing, but how are organizations taking action?
Huron’s research shows that organizations are focusing investments across 7 primary areas of digital transformation over the next one to three years.
When asked to rank the success of their investments relative to their evaluation criteria, leaders’ responses were consistent with their priorities. Core technology fell from most successful to least compared to previous research;
Which digital, technology, and analytics investment areas have been successful?
as organizations invest more heavily in core technology, including electronic health record (EHR) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms, it’s crucial that they prioritize interoperability across their digital ecosystem.
Digital investment areas ranked by perceived success
Core technology
Advanced care facilities and equipment
Advanced analytics and automation
Data sharing management and governance
Data protection and cybersecurity
Digital apps and tools for consumers
Digital apps and tools for healthcare workers
How interoperability defines core technology success
Optimizing the ways in which different computer systems or software exchange information and operate in tandem is essential. Most organizations did not report high levels of interoperability, with the greatest room for improvement within ERP areas.
Technology
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Cloud data platform
Customer Relationship Management
(CRM)
Electronic Health Record (EHR)
73%
72%
68%
65%
Bold % organizations not reporting high interoperability
Lack of training leading cause of failure
When asked why specific digital, technology, and analytics investments didn’t yield ROI, leaders overwhelmingly identified issues stemming from poor planning and preparation. Organizations can position themselves for success by focusing more on quality of implementation rather than
speed — a difficult ask, given that 35% of leaders emphasized that a one-to-three-year timeline is the expectation for achieving success. More time and effort spent on training, choosing the right technology, and setting realistic expectations can go a long way toward achieving ROI.
Why digital, technology, and analytics investments don’t achieve ROI
1
Lack of training for users
Overly optimistic ROI forecasts and/or business case
3
Lack of sufficient technical staff to drive implementation
5
Poor technology selection process
2
Cultural aversion to change
4
Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) is a generation-defining technology that all healthcare organizations plan on integrating or have integrated into their workflow.
A full 100% of respondents see comprehensive automation strategy as a need, while 54% already have an automation strategy in place. Deciding specifically where and how to use it becomes more complex.
AI is here — and organizations must act
10%
Clinician efficiency
20%
35%
Clinical transitions
36%
Staffing
31%
36%
Access efficiency
45%
32%
Data exchange and transparency
34%
48%
Clinical denials and appeals processing
57%
Supply chain optimization (ERP)
AI use cases: Live vs. Plan to implement
33%
26%
26%
Implemented
Plan to implement
Leaders hoping to make meaningful strides across digital, technology, and analytics areas can do so with proper planning and preparation.
Upskilling staff, precise investments and implementation, and cultivating a culture of technological proficiency are crucial for supporting digital investments that enhance business-critical functions and evolve how organizations provide care.
How organizations can drive digital growth
Connect with a Huron expert today to evolve your digital strategy and put what’s possible into practice.
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Core
technology
Data protection & cybersecurity
Data sharing, management, & governance
Digital apps & tools for healthcare workers
Digital apps & tools for consumers
Advanced care facilities
Advanced analytics & automation
e.g. predictive analytics, robotic process automation (RPA), generative AI chatbots, etc.
Advanced analytics
& automation
e.g. smart floors, expansion of interoperable equipment, advanced robotics, etc.
Advanced care facilities
e.g. remote patient monitoring, wearables, customer relationship management (CRM), etc.
Digital apps & tools
for consumers
e.g. ambient clinical intelligence (ACI) solutions, personnel management or care coordination system, etc.
Digital apps & tools for healthcare workers
e.g. interoperable systems with payors, data sharing and interoperability between systems, etc.
Data sharing, management, & governance
e.g. compliance and certifications, security event monitoring, etc.
Data protection & cybersecurity
e.g. electric health record (EHR), enterprise resource planning (ERP), core cloud components (Azure, AWS), etc.
Core
technology
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Tap icons to explore
7 Core Areas
of Digital Transformation
e.g., population health, artificial intelligence, robotic process automation
Advanced Analytics & Automation
7
e.g., smart floors, interoperable equipment, robotics
Advanced Care Facilities
6
e.g., remote patient monitoring, wearables, hospital at home
Digital Apps & Tools
for Consumers
5
e.g., voice recognition, note taking, remote work
Digital Apps & Tools for Healthcare Workers
4
e.g., data quality, data lakes, payor interoperability
Data Sharing, Management, & Governance
3
e.g., security event monitoring, certifications, identity access management
Data Protection & Cybersecurity
2
e.g., enterprise resource planning (ERP), electronic health record (EHR)
1
Core Technology & Interoperability
/7
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