In order for health systems to “not be commoditized fully,” they need to collect data to know their patients’ behaviors better and build stronger relationships with them, argued Sara Vaezy, Providence’s chief strategy and digital officer. Consumer brands like Amazon have been doing this for years so they can deliver personalized experiences to their users, and it’s time hospitals take a page out of their playbook, she said.

The healthcare sector has been notoriously slow to adopt new technologies in the past, but ChatGPT has already begun to enter the field. Technology experts at the HIMSS conference in Chicago said that while the AI model is certainly exciting, the healthcare sector must establish an accountability framework for it’s going to address the risks of new technologies like ChatGPT moving forward.

About 70% of hospital IT pilots fail or face major challenges, yet it’s rare for hospitals to discuss these setbacks. At HIMSS23, two nursing informatics leaders argued that project failure is nothing to be ashamed of because it can teach hospitals valuable lessons about what they need for technology initiatives to thrive in the future.

Avia CEO Linda Finkel has had many conversations with health systems executives about why their technology initiatives haven’t gone as planned in the past. Based on these experiences, she has noticed four main reasons hospitals don’t see the results for which they were hoping — including not exercising enough scrutiny during the vendor selection process and failure to think about capability at scale.

As health systems roll out new patient-facing technologies, they need to ensure that their patients are comfortable using these tools. To avoid losing patient trust, hospitals should introduce new technology with transparency and patient education at the forefront of their minds, said Aaron Miri, Baptist Health’s chief digital and information officer.

Hospitals are being more careful than ever when scrutinizing ROI for new technology. Ashis Barad — Allegheny Health Network’s chief information and digital officer — gave advice for health systems follow during the adoption process for new technology, such as ensuring clinicians are involved early on and viewing Big Tech as partners instead of threats.

Many health system technology executives have found that a strong digital transformation strategy requires sustained cross-department collaboration. At a recent conference panel, tech executives from UPMC and LifeBridge Health discussed why partnerships with the marketing department and analytics team are essential.

The paradigm shift to more patient-centric, technology-enabled decentralized clinical trials during the pandemic has created an opportunity to strengthen patient care in research.

The onus is on providers, payers and their technology partners to use the new laws and market dynamics as a catalyst to fully achieve digital transformation in healthcare and improve the patient experience.

The goal of implementing artificial intelligence and machine learning in clinical research is not to replace humans with digital tools but to increase their productivity.

Like the climbing route Tommy Caldwell pioneered on El Capitan in Yosemite, no template exists for transforming the digital health experience. This is new ground for the industry, and organizations need a structured approach.

While digitizing records has been a focal point for industry players in the past, investment in next-gen technology will become bolder and more widespread.

Donigan holds little experience in retail, instead serving as a executive at payers like Cigna and Premera Blue Cross and most recently as CEO of Sapphire Digital, a healthcare technology company that helps patients connect to high quality providers.