News Feature | April 17, 2013

How Are Those 2013 Healthcare IT Predictions Working Out?

Source: Health IT Outcomes
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By John Oncea, Editor

Follow John on Twitter: @buck25

A number of publications predicted what would be trending in healthcare in 2013. How do those prediction look after the first third of the year?

CDW Healthcare created this infographic in support of its latest Health Tech Report released earlier this year. The report and accompanying infographic predict, “It doesn’t seem that health I.T. will be slowing down anytime soon. From the growth of wearable technology devices and mobile networking to the increasing use of tablets by physicians to the interest in implementing data analytics tools — healthcare organizations are tasked to keep up.”

According to CDW, we should have been and need to continue to be aware of these five trends:

  • mobile networking
  • desktop virtualization
  • data’s role, big or small
  • mobility at the patient bedside
  • telehealth’s role in readmissions

CDW wasn’t the only publication looking to the future. InformationWeek and ZDNet both weighed in with 5 predictions each, PwC made 8, MedCity News 10, and CIO lead the pack with 13. These prognostications ranged from the failure of many of the 600 certified EHR systems (InformationWeek) to a consumer revolution in health coverage (PwC) to mobile health disappointing in hospitals (CIO). ZDNet warned of vastly increased cybersecurity threats and MedCity sees the growth of retail clinics and health kiosks.

Admittedly it’s too early to judge who was right and who was wrong. However, some early results are trickling in according to HealthWorks Collective. Several members of TripleTree attended HIMSS 2013 in March and contributed to an article for HealthWorks Collective that summarized four areas that stand out as meaningful themes coming out of the conference:

  • population health management and clinical analytics
  • accountable care solutions
  • revenue cycle management
  • patient engagement and marketing

One final summary of the state of healthcare union after the first third of 2013 was reported by Health IT Outcomes which lists five current trends as:

  • interoperability
  • transparency and patient empowerment
  • risk management for providers
  • healthcare mobilization
  • social media