The COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected health system finances across the U.S., but Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health still plans on making key IT investments.
Nassar Nizami, chief information and digital officer at Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, spoke about the system's decision to continue its transition to the cloud and make other digital health investments in the coming year on an April 3 episode of the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
Click here to download the full episode.
Note: This response is lightly edited for clarity and style.
Question: How are you thinking about investments for this year?
Nassar Nizami: Last year was financially a very challenging year, especially for healthcare providers. I believe we will continue to see financial stress this year. The highest priority on my list is our move to the cloud. We saw the benefits of scaling all applications we hosted on the cloud during the COVID-19 pandemic. We were able to work with the providers and scale up things like Office 365, telehealth and collaboration tools very quickly. For that reason and a number of others, we are prioritizing a move to the cloud.
Secondarily for investment is digital technology. The adoption of technology for telehealth, collaboration and online learning has been great. People are getting used to their tools, patient portals, mobile apps and more to interact with providers and health systems. I expect us to continue investing in technology that makes up our digital front door.
Lastly, we have a robust data and analytics program, and we are looking to take it to the next level by investing in artificial intelligence, machine learning and predictive models.