The State of the Healthcare Ecosystem Presentation

In the State of Healthcare Report, HIMSS and its Trust partners—Accenture, The Chartis Group and ZS—uncovered healthcare barriers and provided key takeaways on current trends, opportunities and insights to drive real progress.

A phased approach was leveraged to develop the report. HIMSS conducted a series of 12 qualitative interviews with subject matter experts from across the healthcare ecosystem to identify the most pressing challenges faced today. Three of the highest priority areas—digital health, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), and financial health—were then used by the Trust partners as the starting point to design the quantitative approach.

The quantitative market intelligence in the report was collected from March to April 2021 and represents 2,743 respondents in the United States—225 health systems, 309 clinicians, 147 payers and 2,062 patients. Participants answered a variety of ques­tions relating to digital health, AI/ML and financial health.

Responses underscored the ever-shifting healthcare ecosystem surrounding access, data and costs in the United States. By better understanding these priority areas, stakeholders can bridge gaps, wisely invest limited time and resources, and plan for what’s next. Strategic planning will be vital as transformational trends in these three areas are poised to play pivotal roles in the healthcare industry for years to come.

Digital Health

The pandemic propelled digital health utilization to new heights, creating challenges throughout healthcare and promising lasting impacts. By keeping close tabs on digital health trends, healthcare leaders can unearth future opportunities for innovation and proactively invest in the necessary tools and technology.

AI/ML

Utilization of AI/ML initiatives across healthcare is still relatively nascent, but segments are beginning to pinpoint key benefits amid lingering reservations. Being sensitive to communities’ understanding and use of these technologies, as well as their concerns, can help leaders find and evaluate AI/ML opportunity areas while considering their organization’s existing assets.

Financial Health

Perceptions of financial health, particularly in the current state of the pandemic, depend largely on the segment’s specific role within the healthcare hierarchy and how they view the impact of an aging population. Understanding critical challenges to the bottom line and the often-disparate views of alternate segments within the industry can help leaders pinpoint opportunities for greater efficiencies of care.

HIMSS Trust Partnership

The HIMSS Trust partnership is a consortium of leaders from across the healthcare and technology space who are collecting, analyzing and reporting on in-depth, data-driven market intelligence. Insights gathered by the Trust will unveil trends and challenges to help the industry prepare and predict for the next three to five years.