The healthcare industry is no stranger to the importance of IT systems, and as technology continues to evolve, the role of IT is only set to become even more critical. To gain insight into the biggest IT issues facing the sector, Becker’s recently interviewed both ChatGPT and Patrick Woodard, MD, Chief Healthcare Information Officer of Rapid City, South Dakota-based Monument Health. The question they were asked was, What will be the three biggest IT issues for hospitals and health systems in five years?
Dr. Woodard believes that the primary IT challenges for hospitals will be controlling expense growth, integrating and rationalizing platforms, and enhancing data and analytics capabilities. These IT challenges arise due to increased pressure on hospitals to maintain high-quality care. The increasing revenue and margin pressures, 340b limitations, and advancements in payers’ capabilities for determining appropriate healthcare lead to hospitals continuing their journey toward value-based care.
Meanwhile, ChatGPT pinpointed data security and privacy, interoperability, and digital transformation as the top concerns. The digitization of healthcare records creates an ever-growing pool of sensitive patient data that is attractive to cybercriminals, making data security and privacy a top concern.
ChatGPT also highlighted that despite the seamless exchange of patient health information being crucial for effective care delivery, achieving true interoperability between different healthcare systems and providers remains problematic due to variations in data formats, systems, and standards. This creates new challenges for EHRs to communicate efficiently and accurately affecting healthcare outcomes, care coordination, and patient safety.
Lastly, ChatGPT and Dr. Woodard agreed that adopting and integrating emerging technologies can enhance operational efficiency, improve patient outcomes and reduce costs, but implementing these techs requires careful planning, investment, infrastructure, data governance, and workforce training.
While predicting specific IT issues in the future is challenging, it’s clear that data security and privacy, interoperability, and innovation in emerging technologies will be ongoing issues in the healthcare industry for the next five years. The sector must be innovative and proactive in managing these challenges for optimum care delivery.
