Healthcare providers are scrambling to modernize their IT infrastructure to meet the many needs of patients ranging from personalized care to to personalized technology solutions. Leaders of these organizations are expected to use a “disease-first, information-everything” approach to prioritize needs and patient experience while allowing access to their medical information from virtually any healthcare setting.
However, that view may contradict the available sources. Healthcare organizations, especially smaller ones, are struggling with budget and bandwidth constraints as they try to modernize their IT systems.
AI adoption is on the horizon
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a major vehicle for modern endeavors. More than three in five organizations plan to use AI technology within the next three years, according to a recent study by HIMSS Market Insights on IT infrastructure innovation.1 This includes AI generation, predictive analytics and workflow automation.
Kurt Telep, Healthcare Field Chief Technology Officer for cloud provider Nutanix, emphasized the importance of preparing IT networks for the needs of AI. “To maximize the value of AI investments, it’s important to have IT infrastructure that can handle heavy data processing so you can get actionable information quickly,” he said.
The use case for AI technology is high. While only 11% of research organizations currently use AI-based data modeling, 69% plan to this technology will be used within the next five years. It heralds a potential revolution in medical imaging and research.
Obstacles on the way to modernity
Despite this hope, the road to IT innovation is full of obstacles. More than three in four executives (76%) in the HIMSS Market Insights survey cite the rising cost of IT infrastructure as a major barrier.
On average, healthcare decision makers identified six critical challenges, with IT security and resilience (61%) and investment priorities (59%) topping the list, according to the study. Information management presents another serious challenge, especially for management leaders. The volume of patient data, along with the need for seamless sharing across different levels of care, is pushing many organizations to their limits.
Telep said that even small businesses need long-term data storage and high-availability data to grow their business, and relying on outdated solutions is expensive. “The cost of maintaining traditional IT infrastructure continues to go up because of the high level of maintenance associated with traditional technology,” he said.
Health IT entrepreneurs can play an important role in organizations that maximize their investment and ensure solutions work as expected, according to Telep. This includes the close relationship between consumers, especially those who integrate AI into products and services. “When vendors work together, it leads to better, better results,” he said.
The push by healthcare leaders to modernize IT infrastructure is not just to save time; it is also about improving patient outcomes by reshaping the future of care delivery. By using technology to facilitate patient access and data sharing across different environments, health care organizations can continue to meet multiple care needs and remain in the best service.
Resources
- HIMSS Market Insights. 2024. IT Modern Development. This study was conducted among 54 specialists and IT/Technology leaders (managers and above) in healthcare in the United States. Dell was not named as a sponsor of the study.
Read the Nutanix State of Enterprise AI Report here.
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