Third-Party Technology Investment Continues to Rise

Insight from “Buyer Mindsets: Health Technology Perspectives from Clinical and Clinical IT Leaders,” a new InfoBrief from the IDC, indicated that 88 percent of US providers intend to increase third-party technology investments in 2023 and 2024.

Despite the financial drawbacks of the last several years, the desire to digitally transform healthcare trumps all other goals. The IDC InfoBrief presented the mindsets of 205 clinical and clinical IT leaders in US healthcare organizations.

According to the InfoBrief, digital transformation is the most important organizational goal for 2023–2024 among providers. Most often, the desire to use these resources derives from the mission of cutting waste out of operations, lowering costs, and raising efficiency.

However, infrastructure limitations pose some challenges. The InfoBrief indicates that 40 percent of clinical leaders define integration as a challenge, alongside middleware as IT operations and system infrastructure technologies.

The suspected effect that technology would have on data is also playing a large part in respondent opinions. Roughly 40 percent and 39 percent defined data reliability and availability, respectively, as anticipated positive outcomes.

“Delivering health data that’s complete, accurate, and standardized at the point of care makes it possible for providers to offer the personalized care that consumers want,” said Luke Bonney, CEO of Redox, in a press release. “But before that can happen, the data must be usable; clinicians, as users, must be able to customize their data experience, accessing only the data they want, when and where they need it.” 

Due to inconsistencies in this area, third-party technology vendors have the opportunity to stand out from their competitors.

“Providers are looking for nimble vendors who can clinically validate their solutions and differentiate the way they care for patients,” said Bonney. “Ideally, the technology vendors they choose now will be able to easily exchange data outside their network, wherever their patients go for care.”

Previous efforts have displayed the growth of technology and the digital transformation of healthcare.

In November 2022, UC Davis Health and  General Catalyst, a venture capital firm, began a partnership to support digital transformation and the use of artificial intelligence.

Through the partnership, UC Davis Health aimed to use the network of companies affiliated with General Catalyst to drive innovation. They intended to do this through care delivery, research, and education.

“Digital innovations in medicine have the potential to not only improve patient outcomes but be a game-changer for the entire health care sector,” said Ashish Atreja, MD, chief information officer and chief digital officer at UC Davis Health, in the press release. “This collaboration will create an environment that fosters open innovation in digital health, which we hope will lead to new solutions to improve the lives of our patients, increase the efficiency of health care systems and have a positive impact on the health of our communities.”

Although the ways can vary, steps toward the digital transformation of healthcare are common. This is often driven by technological investments and innovative efforts, as displayed by these two pieces of research.