Top Four Healthcare IT Trends of 2014

Top Four Healthcare IT Trends of 2014

By: Jordan Manser, Marketing Intern

2014 will be a year full of growth and change in the healthcare IT industry. More advanced technologies  are expected to improve clinical workflow, allowing clinicians to provide the best care possible.  Here are some of this year’s top healthcare IT trends to be ready for.

1.    Mobile Healthcare (mHealth)

Mobility in healthcare has been a hot topic in recent years, but interest will continue to grow among consumers and developers in 2014. According to a Frost & Sullivan report titled, The Three Big Predictions for the Global Healthcare Market, “The penetration prospects of mHealth technologies are significant in the following areas: wireless vital signs monitoring, location-aware telemonitoring systems, and Bluetooth wireless technology-enabled health trackers. It is an exciting area of opportunity for healthcare growth and will provide innovative solutions for stakeholders, both providers and patients alike.” Fueled by consumer adoption and advancements of mobile technologies, the mobile health market has the potential to change the healthcare industry. These developments, combined with advancements in medical technology, can enable mobility to become more prominent in medical facilities.

2.    BYOD (bring your own device)

With mobility on the rise in healthcare, more organizations are looking to streamline their services. According the Healthcare Mobility Trends survey by Aruba Networks, 85% of hospitals were on board with BYOD in 2012 alone. Doctors and nurses are embracing the use of tablets and smartphones in their workflow due to better flexibility and mobility. Adopting a BYOD strategy gives clinical staff real-time data. With better access to patient data, clinicians can provide enhanced medical care, resulting in better communication and savings.

3.    The Cloud

The Cloud has been around a while, but it is only just making its way into medical offices around the US. This year more and more healthcare providers will look towards cloud computing, which improves efficiency, enables sharing of clinical data across different locations, and allows clinical data to be stored easily. According to Frost & Sullivan, “Advantages that cloud computing provides can change the dynamics of the healthcare information industry over time. The need for efficient sharing of informations across locations in a synchronized manner will be a key driver for cloud computing in healthcare.”

4.    Security

Bringing your own device and migrating medical data to the cloud sound great, but what about security? Privacy and integrity of patient medical data have always been and will continue to be prime concerns in 2014. Security concerns about patient data and medical applications are among the reasons the healthcare industry has been slow to embrace the Cloud and BYOD trends. With the number of mobile users on the rise, healthcare organizations will need to develop good BYOD and cloud computing strategies and meet compliance requirements.

Overall, 2014 will be a year full of change for the healthcare IT industry. It will be interesting to see how these trends develop over the course of the year. Subscribe to our blog to stay up to date on these topics as well as other areas involving embedded wireless solutions.