<Reprint>How IT will impact healthcare in the next decade

The landscape of healthcare entering the new decade is immeasurably different than it was in 2010.

From an information technology perspective, electronic health records systems have become standard tools of the trade at almost all healthcare organizations. That’s a far cry from 2010, when a minority of hospitals and only a tiny fraction of physician practices had such systems in place.

And only 10 years ago, information technologies such as artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality devices and precision medicine have moved from experimental to capacities that hold significant hope for impacting medical delivery in the new decade.

Beyond that, information technology has become an accepted way of delivering care in healthcare organizations. Problems still exist in determining how best to promote efficiency and augment the work of healthcare professionals with it, but few question the value—and potential payoff—that can come from its use.

Meanwhile, HIT likely will be called upon to help the industry as it inexorably moves to value-based care reimbursement approaches, in an effort to restrain healthcare costs, and improve the quality and efficacy of care that patients receive.

With a new decade nearly upon us, the staff of Health Data Management sought to look at some of the emerging ways that information technology will make a difference in the delivery of medical care over the next 10 years. Given the scope of that assignment, the common response from our research was that it’s impossible to project accurately what the next decade holds, but it’s clear that the industry will make significant progress on using the technology and gaining results from it, not just focusing on “laying the pipes” as was necessary in the 2010s.

The following articles, then, are the best guesses from our sources and ourselves as to what benefits the industry might see from information technology over the next 10 years.