In this year’s Top Health Systems Top of Mind survey released by the Center for Connected Medicine (CCM) at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, health system leaders cited AI as the most exciting emerging technology in healthcare.
This annual survey offers a glimpse into the priorities and concerns healthcare leaders are trying to address through their digital transformation efforts. This year, leaders from 55 healthcare organizations shared their thoughts on the emerging technologies that are most exciting to the industry, the areas of medtech that have seen the most advancements over the past two years, and the industry problems that digital health technologies are most likely to solve.
This year marks the fourth time that AI was named the most exciting emerging technology, according to 85% of survey respondents, who highlighted AI's potential to transform management, operations and clinical care.
For the second year in a row, respondents also said that AI has made the most advances over the past two years. The areas most frequently mentioned for AI's potential to improve healthcare outcomes were generative AI, clinical care, ambient intelligence, clinical decision support and large-scale language models.
However, leaders acknowledged that AI security and governance remain challenges for the industry.
Health system leaders cited remote patient monitoring and robotic process automation, along with AI, as the most exciting innovative healthcare technologies, with virtual care/telehealth and interoperability also cited as technologies that have seen the most advancements over the past two years.
In terms of solving industry problems, respondents noted that patient care, patient access and healthcare worker burnout are some of the top challenges best solved with medtech. These issues were also frequently cited in last year's survey as health systems prioritized improving continuity and flow of care, but many organizations have since shifted or split their focus to address operational challenges such as staffing.
Data aggregation and analytics also pose significant challenges for healthcare systems, who must deal with siloed data that is not available in an easily understandable format. Research suggests that these issues may be exacerbated by healthcare organizations' desire to adopt AI solutions, which require a strong data aggregation and analytics foundation.
“Health system leaders are understandably excited about the potential for AI to greatly benefit healthcare by automating time-consuming, manual tasks and freeing up physicians to focus on patient care,” Robert Burt, M.D., UPMC's chief medical information officer, said in a press release. “But this excitement must also be balanced with a commitment to providing quality care to patients and protecting patient data and privacy.”
These findings come after previous CCM reports showed oversight of healthcare AI tools is a growing concern among C-suite executives, and a recent survey from The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center found that most Americans recognize the value of AI in healthcare.
Shania Kennedy has been covering healthcare IT and analytics related news since 2022.
