Summary

Most data-driven healthcare IT (HCIT) providers aren’t going to survive. Their business models are at serious risk of failure in the next three to five years. To beat those odds, they need to evolve dramatically, and fast, to a point where they are not selling data at all.

Like any number of industries, healthcare is being transformed by the explosion of low-cost data. In healthcare, the transformation is driven in large part by electronic medical record adoption and digitization. There have been many benefits. End users can take advantage of quantities of newly available information to solve problems in population health, clinical decision support and patient engagement, among other applications. And ease of access means ease of market entry: Emerging data providers can get on their feet quickly and create new sources of competition. For example, AiCure and Propeller Health are using very different methods to generate patient medication adherence data. Competition leads to better offerings and more choice. What could go wrong?

Plenty, actually. End users can be overwhelmed by the flood of raw data and reports that may not fit well with their existing workflow or answer their specific question. And for data providers, ubiquitous availability of information and low barriers to entry means that the competitive advantage gained from the data itself can be quickly eroded.

This Executive Insights examines ways that data providers are making the move from data provider to data analytics services.

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