Healthcare CIOs take note: Prepare now for the onslaught of crowdsourcing, open source, mass customization as well as innovative and disruptive business models that are coming your way.

The ongoing shift toward value-based and customer-centric care delivery will spark innovative solutions and add value for healthcare customers. Such digitization of products, services and commerce models, in fact, are already beginning to democratize healthcare systems in disruptive ways, according to global research firm Frost & Sullivan.

"CEOs should pay attention to developing innovative business models to monetize emerging opportunities,” Frost & Sullivan  analyst Kamaljit Beher wrote in a new report. “Companies such as Apple, Google, IBM Watson and Intel will continue to compete outside their domain, forcing traditional healthcare companies to change their dominant business models.”

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The healthcare industry is entering a phase of rapid transformation, brought about by the emergence of new technologies and the need to align with emerging care compensation models, Frost & Sullivan noted.

What’s more, medical technology and pharmaceutical companies are thinking beyond products and pills and gauging ways they might provide services to become more customer-centric.

Actionable health outcome data will be the new battleground in the healthcare industry, analysts predict.

“Walmart is planning to take bold steps, from introducing disruptive product-service bundling packages to aiming to become a primary care provider,” Beher wrote.

New models such as crowdsourcing and mass customization are emerging and enabling price transparency. They also provide companies with more flexibility by lowering inventory carrying cost.

These emerging models also promote the culture of open innovation, enabling data collection on customer preferences, which will lead to optimized new product developments.

“Collaboration and open-source innovation are key ingredients for future restructuring,” Beher wrote. “Scalability is the most critical success factor.”

Twitter: @Bernie_HITN
Email the writer: bernie.monegain@himssmedia.com

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