Digital, AI are top priorities for healthcare. However, EHR dominates IT spend.

In our 3rd annual survey on the healthcare IT demand environment, we find that the more things change, the more they stay the same. As we have seen in previous years, technology vendors face continued struggles with long sales cycles. For the second year in a row, the rise of non-traditional players such as Amazon and Google is seen as having a strong impact on the competitive environment among technology vendors.

This year, we included healthcare enterprise executives to our respondent pool and they share many of the same observations as the technology vendors. For this group, the main IT priorities for 2019 are accelerating digital health initiatives and investing in advanced analytics and artificial intelligence. This aligns with the vendor view on the top spending priorities for healthcare IT in 2019. Healthcare executives are also more upbeat about overall IT spend growth than their vendors. Here are the highlights of the survey. You can download the complete report here.

?            The top spending priorities for healthcare executives are digital, advanced analytics and AI. EHR systems will dominate technology spending budgets, even as the focus turns to digital and analytics.

?            IT budgets are expected to grow by 20% or more. Healthcare executives are more upbeat about IT spend growth than vendors.

?            Healthcare executives say they are confused by the buzz around AI and digital. They are also struggling to make sense of the changing landscape of who is playing what role and the blurred lines of capabilities and competition.

?            Cybersecurity issues are a challenge for 2019 in the healthcare sector, but not the biggest driver of technology spending or the top area of focus for health systems in 2019.

?            The CIO remains the most important buyer for technology vendors, however IT budgets are now sitting with multiple stakeholders.

?            The biggest challenge for technology vendors is long cycles, along with product/ service differentiation and brand visibility.

?            The rise of non-traditional players, such as Amazon, Apple and Google will have a strong impact on the competitive healthcare technology environment. Deeply entrenched EHR vendors such as Epic and Cerner will grow in dominance

Health systems are firmly committed to their EHR vendors. Despite the many shortcomings, EHR systems appear to be the primary choice for digital initiatives among health systems at this stage.

Damo Consulting’s annual survey continues to provide important insights into the demand environment for healthcare IT. For the first time, the report compares how technology vendors and healthcare executives see 2019 shaping up. I hope you find the report useful. I would love to hear your comments.