The US healthcare industry can capitalise on innovation and deliver a better consumer experience
The US healthcare market is seeing a record-breaking level of acquisition activity as providers race to capitalise on innovation and deliver a better consumer experience. But rapid consolidation raises serious concerns around the IT systems that form the backbone of patient care.
Many traditional providers are turning to IT partners with digital capabilities on automation and analytics to support and overcome the challenges they are facing. One of these challenges is the competition from new digital healthcare entrants.
In fact, the global digital health market is expected to reach $665.36bn by 2026 growing at a CAGR of 15.4% during the forecast period, according to Statistics MRC.
For example, pharmaceutical companies are also having to compete with Amazon’s first official move into healthcare, following the e-commerce giant’s upcoming acquisition of online pharmacy PillPack. This further highlights the pressure that traditional healthcare companies and providers are under to compete with agile newcomers who are starting to threaten market share.
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As traditional healthcare systems continue to merge in order to compete, the fear is that providers will become vulnerable to competition from digital health companies who can more efficiently deliver care and treatment directly to patients. As tech giants including Apple, Amazon, and Google make healthcare market entrances, traditional healthcare systems and hospitals face increasing pressure to remain competitive.
As mentioned, the consolidation and acquisition of US healthcare providers may result in their IT systems becoming weakened to support the delivery of patient care, and allow for tech giants to swiftly move in and fill the gap. So, providers need to prioritise keeping pace with innovation and the updating of their systems, to avoid being left behind.
To ensure seamless integration of information from various sources, healthcare providers and carriers can use technology-enabled systems to integrate various streams of medical data and create a more efficient work flow process. Doing this will also allow increased transparency for different medical professionals to have access to this information, allowing for more informed decision making and collation of patient data – an increasing goldmine in today’s day and age.
Also, the adoption of technology-enabled systems will equip decision-makers within the healthcare sector to revamp the clinical operating models that hold their precious data. This will allow them to deliver scalable, efficient, and high-quality patient care while reducing operational costs – which is a combination for success in today’s evolving healthcare environment.