Data analytics and business intelligence (BI) is the biggest health IT topic for 2015, according to Stoltenberg Consulting's third annual Health IT Industry Outlook Survey.
The survey was completed by project managers, chief information officers (CIOs), IT directors, and consultants at the recent 2015 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) meeting in Chicago. Of the respondents, 41% said that data analytics and business intelligence was their biggest health IT topic. Health information exchange came in second with 26% of the vote, followed by mobile health (21%) and the transition to version 10 of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) (12%).
Key business objectives in 2015 included the following:
- Improved patient care across the continuum: 40%
- Meeting meaningful use attestations: 27%
- Provoking and sustaining patient engagement: 18%
- Financial viability: 15%
In other findings, 34% said the lack of buy-in across their healthcare organizations was the largest barrier to IT initiatives, including data analytics and achieving meaningful use. Twenty-eight percent pointed to a lack of financial resources, while 25% cited confusion and ambiguity about regulations as the biggest barriers. Thirteen percent pointed to restricted time frames, according to the firm.
As for the biggest barriers to healthcare data analytics, 51% indicated confusion over which healthcare data to include and how much of it to collect. Thirty-three percent said that healthcare organizations don't know what to do with their data or what to look for, while 10% said the appropriate tools and strategies aren't available yet. Only 6% believed that healthcare data analytics was too intimidating.
