Digital transformation. It’s happening all over the world. So much so, in fact, consultancy IDC projected that DX will gobble up 20 percent of the global GDP as enterprises spend some $20 trillion modernizing their tech infrastructures.

Whereas healthcare is not alone among industries amid such a metamorphosis, hospitals can share a list of common ingredients necessary for making it happen.

“Personalized medicine, Internet of Things and consumerism,” said David Chou, Chief Information and Data Officer at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. “All three play in the long-term strategy.”

That is a distinctly different business model than what exists today. Consider that while the majority of participants in the 2017 State of Consumerism in Healthcare by Kaufman Hall ranked meeting consumer expectations as a high priority as defined by successfully instituting related capabilities only about 8 percent have accomplished it.

That said, 29 percent have work underway to develop consumer-related capabilities — while another 37 consider it a medium priority and have made moderate progress.

Kaufman Hall’s study concentrated on consumerism broadly. Chou’s other two ingredients, those being IoT and personalized medicine, are not altogether different.

“Consumers want a personalized experience and care tailored for them so as business leaders we must think about reinventing that experience,” Chou added. “The future of healthcare is figuring out how to keep patients out.”

And multitudes of innovators are designing so many IoT devices to do just that: promote wellness, predict coming adverse events and, ultimately, create ways to keep people out of the hospital.

“This is an organizational change and it must be part of the organization's strategy,” Chou said. “Influencing the organization to make the change is the toughest part. Technology implementation is actually easy.”

Twitter: SullyHIT
Email the writer: tom.sullivan@himssmedia.com