Digital Health, Healthcare, Innovation, mHealth
Digital Transformation insights on CIO’s Perspectives on Digital Health
About two months ago a research came out regarding the CIO’s perspectives on Digital Health. The aim of this research was to give a sense of perspective with regards to the digital health journey towards total healthcare transformation.
eHealth Transformation Research

- Are healthcare executives and CIOs everywhere in the world looking to meet the consumers growing demands and leverage digital health to lower operational costs?
- How to make the transition towards ehealth go as easy as possible and how to get stakeholders and especially doctors on board with digital health?
- What healthcare transformations mean for the CIO role in healthcare?
Healthcare Transformation Insights
To start with something very positive, I would like to state that the research displayed that all CIO’s agree that digital health transformation is going to play an immensely big part with regards to future delivery of healthcare, particularly with regards to public health ecosystems (e.g. the NHS). Currently we see that three combining factors are driving up the cost of health services; the aging population, the prevalence of lifestyle disorders and the growing costs of advanced therapies. These developments are not easily battled with only incremental efficiency gains done by individual organisations. What is needed is a reimagining of how healthcare services are delivered and moreover, behavioural change with regards to how users, patients and citizens deal with their own healthcare needs. It is exactly that, the behavioural change of the people using the technologies, which will transform healthcare. Thus, a whole new health ecosystem has to be created. Therefore, the approach a CIO has within an organisation is of the utmost importance. Rather than just focussing on efficiency gains through technology innovation, CIOs will have to link the IT with the healthcare people. For this reason it is important that a CIO understands the language and complexity healthcare information. This is why increasingly we see healthcare organisations are now striving for a Chief Clinical Information Officer (CCIO) or have the CIO work closely together with a senior clinician with an interest in technology. By having both sides, IT and healthcare, work together, implementing innovations and using the technology in the workflow becomes much more natural. The new role of the CIO becomes therefore than more of a translator role, guiding the communication between the two fields. As such a bridge is created between the clinical and technological worlds. Secondly, what is needed for proper healthcare transformation is:- an executive vision towards the transformation which oversees everything,
- the resources, especially with regards to staff. As mentioned before the IT sector and healthcare sector have to collide, therefore new skills have to be acquired.
- Lastly, organisational cohesion is very important. Making sure that all is interoperable and working together.
