Having worked in healthcare technology for over 20 years, I’ve witnessed many health IT tech efforts languish and die on the vine. Great ideas that could’ve had a massive impact can be found in the graveyard of healthcare.
How is now any different?
This moment is the culmination of over 30 years of work by experts in healthcare, technology and regulation to drive adoption, usability and utilization.
Let’s look at what’s happened in the consumer electronic space alone. In 2006, I thought I was Mr. Hotstuff with my work-provided BlackBerry because I could get GPS directions and play Brick Breaker — at one point, I made it into the national top 10 high scores — on my 2.5-inch screen. By 2008, my charming device of promise (and high score) looked like an antique with slick bricks of glass floating around from Apple and Android.
A massive technological shift happened overnight, and I found myself entering the territory of a late adopter — I will note I miss my trackball and tactile keyboard to this day. I still keep that BlackBerry on my bookshelf as a reminder to not be left behind again.
We’re at a similar tipping point in healthcare right now. It’s the perfect storm:
What’s changed compared to the past? Not to go too multidimensional but everything, everywhere, all at once.
This perfect storm of regulation, technology, capability and need coincides with a massive increase in the data that healthcare teams and patients are collecting —go ahead and check your heart rate and 02 saturation on your smartwatch, I’ll be here when you get back — and a staggering amount of research breakthroughs.
At the same time, the sheer volume of data, combined with staffing shortages, increasing patient complexity and rising care demands, has pushed our healthcare system to a breaking point. Clinicians are overwhelmed, and traditional solutions aren’t enough.
The concurrent alignment — technology meeting demand — of all these distinct areas (plus, the consumer level push for healthcare and technology access) has created an opportunity for us to change the way we think. To no longer just nip at the periphery, but instead go for the heart of healthcare technology.
Thoughtfully implemented AI-based solutions can address many of the structural issues our health partners run into on a daily basis and enable clinicians to work with their patients in a better, more efficient manner.
It’s often observed that “it takes an estimated average of 17 years for only 14% of new scientific discoveries to enter day-to-day clinical practice.”1 If you look at the mass electronic health record (EHR) adoption of 2009 as the beginning of the snowball, 2026 is less than a year around the corner.
Are you ready?
1 Westfall J, Mold J, Fagnan L Practice-based research – “Blue Highways” on the NIH roadmap. JAMA 2007;297:403–6
Image sourced from the Harvard Business Review article, “The Pace of Technology Adoption is Speeding Up.”
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