Developing an IT infrastructure that takes available data and transforms it into actionable information has become a necessity in the age of healthcare reform.
"In no other industry has technology been called on to so significantly alter the fundamental relationships that are occurring in the delivery of healthcare today," according to the authors of a new report from Forrester Research.
The report offers five IT imperatives for healthcare providers:
1. Organize data to better protect health data and facilitate the development of information management models.
2. Collect patient insight and data. This means more data, but is a valuable addition to existing data sources.
3. Incorporate a mobile strategy, both as a means of patient engagement as well as a way to improve clinicians' workflows.
4. Embrace emerging technologies, such as wearables, big data analytics and artificial intelligence.
5. Move to the cloud to maximize resources, ensuring patient privacy is still protected.
Healthcare organizations that do not follow these recommendations "will fail to deliver on the increasingly important information and process enhancements called for," said the report's authors, according to CIO magazine. "They will be acquired by organizations that can harness these forces."
More Articles on Health IT:
Meaningfully Meeting Meaningful Use: The Necessity of Data Analytics
IBM's Watson in Healthcare: 4 Stories
5 Recent Health IT Vendor Contracts