Healthcare and life sciences (HLS) organizations are expected to lose large sums of money in 2022 if digital initiatives are not met. The disruption brought a paradigm shift in the way healthcare companies rely on their IT teams as modern technologies, such as telehealth and connected devices, became highly critical. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
A plethora of healthcare and life sciences are facing roadblocks while delivering quality care and services. Let’s explore four reasons healthcare organizations find it hard to keep pace with digital transformation and improve patient care.
Four Reasons Healthcare Finds It Hard to Keep Pace with Digital Transformation
Healthcare organizations find it difficult to keep pace with the digital transformation because of the following reasons:
1. Siloed data and lack of data integration
Healthcare and life sciences companies have the majority of applications in any industry. Yet only a few of these applications are consolidated. Whether healthcare companies are creating a 360-degree patient view, optimizing contact centers, or streamlining clinical trials, there is a need to leverage a robust data integration solution. Digital innovation calls for the ability to quickly and securely explore, integrate, and use data.
Healthcare units that rely on legacy data integration solutions face two central problems in the process. First, they need IT to implement custom codes and perform extensive EDI mappings to build data integrations, which is complex and takes time, between six to 12 weeks. Second, because the access to the data is limited, data becomes siloed. That interferes with the insights delivery process, which negatively impacts subsequent steps such as decision-making and value generation.
2. Obsolete IT infrastructure
Unlocking the value of extensive, bi-directional data streams seems impossible without a modernized infrastructure. Maximum IT leaders recognized legacy infrastructure as an enormous challenge as they make attempts to drive digital transformation initiatives. To implement a seamless, well-connected patient experience, healthcare and life sciences companies are trying to unlock the value of critical data to deliver actionable insights and make informed decisions.
To access large data streams, multiple data sources and applications have to exchange and share information quickly, securely, and effectively. But many healthcare and life sciences systems leverage an outdated legacy solution that triggers siloed and diverse technologies. Healthcare organizations need to keep pace in today’s digital world and should be flexible, scalable, and able to address IT deficiencies now – or confront the possibility of falling behind.
3. IT bottlenecks
Healthcare companies that leverage legacy solutions put immense pressure on IT. Why?
That’s because IT teams must implement custom coding and perform EDI mappings to build data connections, which takes time and effort. Also, it puts a lot of pressure on IT as it fails to focus on more high-value, innovation-driven tasks. In addition, this approach quickly escalates integration capacity and creates bottlenecks by relying on already scarce IT teams with an understanding of this integration. Custom code is brittle, time-consuming, and leverages a lot of downstream maintenance. To avoid this, healthcare companies need a modern data integration solution. Modern data integration solutions enable non-technical business users to implement data connections while freeing IT to focus on more high-value tasks.
4. Security and governance risks
Security is central to the forefront of healthcare. Abiding by HIPPAA compliance and staying on the apex government mandates are required. As a matter of fact, managing these regulations is non-negotiable. There is a proper way to digitally transform companies at scale without fear of security or governance issues.
Final word
Digital transformation has become integral for delivering the value promised to patients and generating better outcomes. Yet data silos, legacy solutions, IT bottlenecks, and security concerns are a constant challenge. Healthcare organizations must rely on modern data integration solutions to digitally transform and deliver high-quality patient care.