The explosion in digital health innovations like cloud, mobile and big data analytics has resulted in nearly half of healthcare life sciences firms hiring CIOs in the past three years, according to a new report from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. At the same time, the core competencies CIOs are expected to bring to the job are changing.
Here are four additional takeaways from IMS' New Strategic Information and Technology Roles in Life Sciences Companies report:
- More than 80 percent of companies have established new digital innovation and data positions that challenge the traditional role of the CIO. New in-demand digital competencies include strengths in data orientation, digital fluency, consumer centricity and adaptability and change leadership.
- In small companies, more than 40 percent of CIOs have been in place for less than a year. Nearly half of all life sciences companies have had CIOs for under three years.
- Despite the importance of the CIO in business transformation, fewer than 25 percent of CIOs are part of organizations' executive teams.
- Advanced IT predictive capabilities remain underused, with less than 10 percent of life sciences companies using such capabilities to guide decision-making.
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