Artificial intelligence and technology-driven solutions are revolutionizing healthcare delivery and operations. Digital health startups and industry stalwarts promise increased efficiency, better access to care, happier physicians and a strong bottom line with their products.
But how can CIOs separate reality from the hype?
"Go slow," said Chuck Podesta, CIO of Reno, Nev.-based Renown Health, during a panel at the Becker's Health IT + Digital Health + Revenue Cycle Conference in Chicago. "Just go slow. There's a lot of shiny bright objects out there as we know, and a lot more coming and whatever the urge is, make sure you have really strong governance in your organization."
Leaders from departments across the enterprise request a variety of new technologies and devices, promising big results, and the CIO has to be the voice of reason.
"You've got to have a strong governance in place to make sure these things are vetted so you don't have all this shiny, bright object stuff showing up in your organization."
Mr. Podesta said about six months ago Renown started focusing on virtual care with one particular vendor, and since then four other vendors have hit the market with virtual nursing and virtual care products. One of the new solutions might be better than the first company to market, but Renown is already tied to them.
"What do we do? Stop our pilot and pilot three others?" said Mr. Podesta. "You could go crazy and go in circles with this kind of stuff. Go slow, and having a strong governance is key to managing how you roll this stuff out."
Jeff Gautney, senior vice president and CIO at Rush in Chicago, agreed. His team builds a vision for their IT strategy for the next 18 months to reflect the changing healthcare ecosystem.
"How do we build an organization that's nimble? How do we build an organization that's resilient in the event of a natural disaster or cyberattack? How do we build a workforce that can grow and change over time to take on new challenges?" he said.
There will be many more IT solutions released in the next several months designed to fix those big challenges facing health systems. It will be overwhelming, and organizations don't want to fall behind.
"I agree with Chuck's advice about going slow, but I would also say when you go, make a decision and don't have instant buyer remorse," Mr. Gautney said. "Really give it a chance. Give it some air and let it breathe and work closely with the vendor because solutions will come and go. That doesn't mean that the one you picked, even if it was a little bit behind the eight ball, won't grow into the next one. I would caution you to not be in the constant spin cycle and washing solutions out, and make what you have committed to work."