Surveys show that most healthcare stakeholders consider investments in insights and analytics as a priority funding nowadays. They point out that their organizations are increasingly betting on unified business intelligence (BI) solutions that help implement predictive analytics.
Building such a data-driven approach in healthcare propels this domain forward, as 94% of respondents believe.
They emphasized the top advantage doctors and patients can leverage from implementing healthcare BI tools and data analytics: a more personalized treatment path.
Now, we do see progress in this market. For instance, the Deloitte survey found that customers are more satisfied with how fast and easy they can share their data via wearables than they were a few years ago.
Nevertheless, transforming these data into valuable insights is still a perennial challenge from clinicians’ perspective, let alone acting on it promptly. I would say that data is one of the most underutilized assets in healthcare now.
Storing Data Does Not Mean Benefiting From Them
Many healthcare organizations lack dedicated teams or analytical tools to interpret this volume of data. Clinicians complain about being overloaded by a huge number of irrelevant records.
So, only well-implemented electronic health records (EHR) systems with built-in analytical software, served by professionals, can quickly extract information with decision-making potential.
Despite focusing on a data-driven approach in the majority of interviewed organizations, only 16% define themselves as mature players in this race. They can gather and analyze data from various sources and leverage findings. The rest of the healthcare institutions are struggling with different chain links of this process.
Working with healthcare solutions suppliers, I see how often their customers demand customized software with advanced BI tools to not only react urgently but also use its forecast capabilities.
Inhibitory Factors
While the mentioned statistics show the healthcare sector has an optimistic view of using BI and DA solutions, some roadblocks stop capitalizing on this opportunity. Forty-three percent of interviewees listed disparate or incompatible systems as a top handicap healthcare organizations deal with.
The bottom line is that such organizations need a solution to connect all these data storage, parse the information, and visualize ready-to-use findings.
Preparing this infrastructure is a multi-step process that demands resources. It is not just about the investments. As I highlighted before, healthcare stakeholders are ready to adopt these technologies.
I would say they know about this trend and would like to jump on this opportunity, but subconsciously, such projects may seem like a burden with an uncertain return on investment (ROI) still for many managers.
How to Overcome Limitations
In fact, healthcare management wants to know how the new technology aligns with the KPIs and helps boost performance.
For example, medical organizations are waiting for more engagement from patients and a higher number of positive reviews, cost optimization, scaling, and better security.
From a doctor's perspective, automating some paperwork and decreasing diagnosis time matter.
A B2B vendor that provides a SaaS EHR solution would like to compete with major players and increase its market share, gain a new round of investments, meet tight deadlines and high investor expectations, or ultimately, enter new markets and even go for an IPO.
In the U.S., there is a noticeable trend toward burnout and dissatisfaction among clients and doctors. Recently, the U.S. healthcare system faced its largest cyber attack. Gartner warned about such concerns last year.
Such serious problems in the healthcare domain uncover big opportunities for health tech players, especially with SaaS products. The medical system needs new qualitative solutions to revolutionize its operations or thoroughly modernize the exciting ones. All you need is to show your clients how an EHR solution with BI tools will address their specific problems or help them achieve their goals.
The second most common limitation I often observe in such projects is the scope of work and time frames, which is overwhelming for many stakeholders. As a micro-changing approach mature adopter, we recommend an incremental legacy modernization of your EHR system (of course, into your decision-making assistant and a business driver).
How It Works In Practice
We have had a client who offers EHR as a SaaS solution. Initially, they used this system for internal purposes. Later, they saw the growing demand for such software and decided to get their share of the pie.
The organization faced many limitations. Their old system wasn’t scalable enough and couldn’t cope with increased users and data. Additionally, the owners were afraid of security concerns, data leaks, and damaging their reputations.
The main challenge was to isolate customers’ data from each other in one environment. As a solution, we created a cloud multi-tenant architecture when different clinics’ records are operated absolutely independently.
Also, cloud migration enables the client to scale the resources according to their actual use. For instance, seasonal influenza outbreaks cause higher patient activities and increased requests. The system adjusts resource consumption for such cases and scales them down after the peak periods.
Moreover, the solution can predict such events. The system transforms historical data and information extracted in real-time from various databases into conclusions. Then, it automatically visualizes them on BI monitoring panels and notifies decision-makers. Hence, healthcare organizations can prepare their personnel and infrastructure in advance.
A clear business strategy based on the modernized solution helped our client gain investments and government program support. By relying on our step-by-step upgrading approach, they overcame the main limitations.
In Conclusion
When we talk about adopting BI and data analysis in healthcare, it goes not only about technical or funding limitations. The key inhibitor we have to cope with is switching managers' business mindset and encouraging the new corporate culture. It is not enough just to have innovative tools. They won’t revolutionize your performance if they don’t have organizational leaders' support.
While many companies are still implementing technologies for technologies, the most successful market players see their purposes and reach them.
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