The influence of Technology in the Healthcare industry is overpowering the inertia which has plagued the CIOs for so long, they have been caught napping and now have a mountain to climb.

Recall how the growth of video-on-demand (VOD) services like Netflix, Hulu transformed “watching TV” for viewers. Suddenly instead of the traditional TV package, viewers enjoyed a great experience and had a greater control on what they watch, when they watch and how they watch. It was a big shift with the viewer at the center .

In 2017, we are witnessing a similar transformation in healthcare industry with the emerging value-based healthcare regulations and its overarching goal of providing value to customers. This in turn has transformed the role of CTOs / CIOs as Sherpas to pave the way and lead healthcare organizations through the rough technology terrain. Long, winding road ahead but it can be done.

Healthcare CIOs can become the Sherpas of Future Healthcare Organizations

A Sherpa knows how to climb and fully understands the terrain and the landscape. Although he guides the climbers to the last mile, he doesn’t plant the flag at the top of the mountain. Similarly, CIOs must balance their roles of line management and executive function to ensure that right information is accessible across the organization and guiding the team in using emerging technologies effectively like mobile, cloud, AI and IoT.

CIO’s redefined role will see a dramatic shift in focus on patient engagement/satisfaction and demand greater organizational interoperability to deliver successful results. With technology evolving as a big opportunity and differentiator, CIOs will be required to deliver proactive tech leadership as a business leader not just limited to a traditional CTO role.

Presently, even as CIOs tackle challenges in healthcare including improving patient care, managing BYOD mobile devices, and meeting government regulations apart from looking for ways to connect emerging technologies in cloud, mobile, social, big data, AI or IoT, the road ahead for healthcare CIO offers more challenges and demands.

Predicting Future Roles of Healthcare CIOs

Digital technology is poised to become a core component of every healthcare organization and in future CIOs will have to wear many hats. CIOs role will involve being the leader, executor and innovator with a focus on technology infrastructure and integration in the healthcare organization. Take a sneak peek into their future roles with insights from leading think-tanks of healthcare industry. Business Process Strategists:

The evolving influence of CIO means that they are not just technologist, but now have a broader business- focus and are taking the leap to become the Sherpas and lead healthcare organizations by leveraging their deep and rich technical acumen.

The next generation CIOs will emerge as strategic leaders who will need to transition from being more transactional to being more strategic, thus be more business-focused rather than technology focused. As someone who leads patient-care quality in healthcare organizations, CIO will be required to see what needs to be done and to visualize what needs to be accomplished in the future. From expansion plans to health initiatives, best CIOs in future will know the financial, operational, clinical and strategic goals of the organization and utilize their IT prowess to implement and invest in technology that the healthcare organization needs and can afford.

Partner & Collaborator

Given the fact that patients, doctors, staff and C-suite count on CIOs to harness the power of technology, CIOs will have to shoulder and step up to the demands of the stakeholders and also assess and embrace constantly shifting trends in technology and healthcare industry. Healthcare CIOs cannot be successful in delivering real value without understanding the business of healthcare. In their pursuit of delivering value based patient-care, CIOs will need to tap into their vertical domain depth to enable new strategies and processes that reduce costs, improve customer engagement in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible. As much as CIO’s role is about tech leadership, they will have to polish their soft skills, interpersonal skills and look at the human factor to reach out and collaborate. The 2017 CIO100 report highlights how CIOs are managing a balancing act between operational demands and traditional IT component of the job even as they drive digital transformation.

As technology evolves at a fast pace, the adoption and innovation of emerging HIT requires healthcare CIO to be ahead of the technology curve to stay competitive. Therefore, healthcare CIOs will have to collaborate to adopt bi-modal approaches and encourage participation across organization to ensure adoption of new technologies rapidly.

Managing the Digital Health Consumer :

Value-based healthcare system is undergoing a transition and patient engagement and satisfaction is at the center stage of every journey. Providing Software Product Engineering Services that Facilitate a better patient experience, improving population health management strategies, and reducing healthcare costs will be a top priority for the future CIO, who’s role until now was restricted to managing IT infrastructure.

One of the biggest shift towards value-based patient care in the healthcare industry is coming from digital-savvy patients who demand more control over their healthcare and expect high-quality, affordable, accessible and personalized care in the world of Amazon, Netflix and Uber.

The digital health consumer is no longer a passive stakeholder, instead he/she is more involved, and will require CIOs in future to increasingly engage with him/her in a collaborative approach to turn patients into active participants in their healthcare. Going forward, CIOs will need to expand their perspective by catering to physicians as well as consumers /patients with a business-focus approach.

The emergence of patient engagement and patient satisfaction as key measures of value-based care requires a CIO to work on multiple fronts, develop processes and mechanisms to measure and manage patient experience satisfaction through better workforce engagement strategies.

So, while no mountain is high enough, the agility of CIOs to embrace disruptive technologies in healthcare set up holds the ladder to summit the peak. Choosing Cygnet as your software development company can be your Sherpa to help you surmount the challenge with our Product Development Services.