In 2025, health system IT and digital leaders plan to focus on the common (data and cybersecurity) and the novel (creative voice artificial intelligence and inpatient digital "highways").
Here are the digital technologies health systems won't be able to go without in 2025, C-suite leaders told Becker's:
1. A quick way to value new innovations. "We will need a much broader lens than efficiency and productivity, and be able to define and verify the expected benefit rapidly," said Nigam Shah, MD, PhD, chief data scientist at Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Health Care.
2. AI and robotic process automation for patient access. "With AI predicting appointment needs and RPA automating repetitive backend processes, health systems can reduce no-show rates, optimize resource utilization, and create a frictionless patient experience," said Crystal Broj, chief digital transformation officer of Charleston, S.C.-based MUSC Health. "Systems not adopting these platforms will struggle to remain competitive and responsive in an increasingly digital healthcare landscape."
3. Data. "Data (structured or unstructured) will continue to be a highly valued currency in 2025," said Scott Arnold, chief digital and innovation officer of Tampa (Fla.) General Hospital. "Particularly, best bets are on health systems that have a solid plan for automation and digital analytics platform to produce insights to support elevated efficiency, higher quality, and optimal care coordination. Even better are organizations that are more advanced in the use of AI toolsets to create new or predictive insights from data."
4. Inpatient digital "highways." Houston Methodist, for instance, will have an inpatient digital "highway" — offering a broad array of video capabilities — in every inpatient room in 2025, expanding from virtual nursing and virtual ICU for admission and discharge paperwork to video-based hospitalists and medication support. "In 2025, we look forward to working with many of our services to expand and make use of this incredible asset," said Roberta Schwartz, PhD, chief innovation officer of Houston Methodist.
5. Low-cost wearables embedded with AI and machine learning. This technology will "ensure we are able to recognize clinical deterioration before patients are symptomatic or to intervene on an impending event, preventing deterioration and clinical escalations in care across the spectrum of care," said Richard Zane, MD, chief innovation officer of Aurora, Colo.-based UCHealth. "Success will hinge on an organization's ability to leverage the EHR as a true digital platform and to foster a culture of innovation and accountability — where aligned strategies and rapid iteration are embraced — in order to deliver real and impactful outcomes."
6. Robust cybersecurity infrastructure. "The increasing reliance on interconnected digital tools and the surge in cyberattacks targeting sensitive patient data make a comprehensive cybersecurity system nonnegotiable," said Zafar Chaudry, MD, chief digital, AI and information officer of Seattle Children's. "To maintain patient trust, ensure regulatory compliance and protect critical infrastructure, health systems must prioritize advanced threat detection, data encryption and regular vulnerability assessments."
7. Technology to improve throughput and capacity. These platforms largely focus on clinician productivity, such as AI-assisted clinical documentation and smartphones integrated with EHRs and nurse call systems, said Lisa Prasad, chief innovation officer of Detroit-based Henry Ford Health. "As with all technologies, the value comes not from the technology itself but from the accompanying people, process and culture changes."
8. Voice AI. "I'm excited about creative voice AI, so generative AI, natural language processing and voice recognition combined together," said Omkar Kulkarni, chief transformation and digital officer of Children's Hospital Los Angeles. "We're still scratching the surface of figuring out where the value is, but exploring use cases in the revenue cycle space with financial clearance and prior authorizations and information collection from a patient registration and appointment scheduling standpoint."