Healthcare’s digital future

The adoption of IT in healthcare systems has, in general, followed the same pattern as other industries.

In the 1950s, when institutions began using new technology to automate highly standardized and repetitive tasks such as accounting and payroll, healthcare payers and other industry stakeholders also began using IT to process vast amounts of statistical data.

Twenty years later, the second wave of IT adoption arrived. It did two things: it helped integrate different parts of core processes (manufacturing and HR, for example) within individual organizations, and it supported B2B processes such as supply-chain management for different institutions within and outside individual industries.

Many institutions in the private and public sector have already moved to the third wave of IT adoption -- full digitization of their entire enterprise, including digital products, channels, and processes, as well as advanced analytics that enable entirely new operating models.

No longer limited to helping organizations do a certain task better or more efficiently, digital technology has the potential to affect every aspect of business and private life, enabling smarter choices, allowing people to spend more time on tasks they deem valuable, and often fundamentally transforming the way value is created.

What will this third wave of IT adoption look like for healthcare? Programs like the N3 communication network in the United Kingdom and the secure telematics platform in Germany have created powerful infrastructures that have the potential to support the third wave of digital services in healthcare.