Healthcare Uncertainty Reigns Supreme

Healthcare Uncertainty Reigns Supreme

I usually don’t reference studies conducted exclusively by health IT vendors in my columns. The main reason being I seriously question their credibility. Let’s face it, most research from health IT vendors almost always magically supports an investment in the products and services that vendor sells, and provides little additional value. However, I’m breaking this self-imposed rule this week by highlighting data from a recent study conducted by Greenway Medical Technologies titled Healthcare Information Technology: Trends And Transformations.

There are two primary reasons why I found this research compelling:

1. The Audience Mix – Greenway captured the individual perspectives of three primary stakeholders in health IT initiatives — physicians, hospital CIOs, and patients/consumers. In total, 200 U.S. physicians registered with Sermo, 197 members of CHIME (College of Healthcare Information Management Executives), and 638 U.S. consumers participated in the survey. Greenway also presented the results in a fashion that clearly showed how each of these three groups responded to different questions. I found this peek into how health IT was impacting these three distinct audiences intriguing.