The bridge between healthcare providers and technology

Higher technology adoption

Informatics is a unit that can include a wide range of personnel, from physicians and nurses to data scientists and analysts. According to Haugen, research indicates healthcare organizations with an informatics group have a 40% higher adoption of clinical applications.

‘With an informatics group, people have the training to use the applications,’ she says. ‘They know how the application fits into their workflow. And they have someone to ask if they have questions.’

More and more, informatics has become the innovator in a health system in desperate need of improvement, driving smart healthcare transformation by upgrading processes and workflows, providing better user experiences and finding smarter ways to leverage clinical expertise.

Encouraging new thinking

Historically, clinicians, pharmacists and other healthcare providers have been consumers of technology, but they haven’t been involved in making decisions around the technology. As patient records became digitized and electronic health records (EHRs) were introduced, it was evident that IT and clinicians needed to find new ways to collaborate.

Informatics has largely focused on patient safety and quality initiatives, such as ensuring stroke patients get the necessary level of care as soon as they enter a hospital.

Healthcare is looking at new ways to embrace hybrid work like all other industries. ‘With an already reduced and overworked staff, hospitals need to enable their physicians, radiologists and clinicians by providing access to EHRs, images or video analytics in a secure, compliant and optimized way, either onsite or when at home. This is needed to help improve quality of patient care,’ says Vivek Vijay of NTT, who specializes in enterprise mobility, digital technology innovation and adoption across industries. ‘By focusing on the well-being of the clinician, we can ensure a healthier community.’

Workflow alignment and contextual data

Vijay says a key to digital transformation in healthcare is having technology conform to clinician workflow, rather than having the workflow conform to technology. In addition, clinicians need access to contextual data in real time. This is an effective way for clinical teams to become comfortable with consolidating various clinical communication devices, including phones, PCs, pagers and more.

He says industries like manufacturing can provide examples of how clinicians can make use of solutions like augmented reality and voice-activated and hands-free wearable solutions that simplify clinician workflow and help them focus on the patient. In addition, informatics and IT teams need to have the right tools that provide visibility into adoption, utilization and operational challenges experienced by the clinical staff in a proactive way.

Wireless and IoT

A few healthcare clients are looking at emerging wireless technologies and IoT solutions to provide secure, ‘wire-like’ and consistent connectivity across the hospital. One of the main use cases is to enable seamless voice and video collaboration. The guaranteed performance of technology will ensure improved patient experience and quality of care.

Informatics is also becoming essential as healthcare is no longer contained within the walls of a medical center or doctor’s office. ‘In the future, digital transformation in healthcare will be less and less about providing care in the acute setting,’ Haugen says. ‘The informatics and clinical people will need to think of ways to reach the community that isn’t coming in for care now.’

Encouraging new thinking is at the heart of informatics. One large pulmonary hospital in the Midwest takes the attitude that every patient is a customer. Reframing the institutional mindset has allowed the hospital to set up kiosks for check-in and automate insurance verification—something that hospitals have been historically reluctant to do.

Transforming healthcare

‘A lot of people don’t realize IT is becoming transformative in healthcare because healthcare is thinking about IT differently,’ Haugen says.

The ramifications touch every aspect of care. With proper technology, ER doctors could be relieved of time-consuming tasks like taking a patient’s temperature—as such duties could be performed remotely by student interns.

Vijay also mentions that healthcare operations and IT need an agile, AI-enabled, self-healing digital fabric that can dynamically scale up or down depending on need. ‘The ongoing co-innovation and lessons learned between clinical teams, IT and the business are going to help us be ready for whatever comes next,’ he says.

By building that bridge, healthcare could finally reap the many benefits technology has long promised patients and society as a whole.