6 Reasons for Slow Technology Adoption in Healthcare & How Mobility is Changing the Scenario.

“Shoot for the moon, so even if you miss you will land among the stars.”
In July 1969, NASA literally executed this phrase, in fact, they did not only shoot for the moon but they actually landed on the Moon.
What made that mission successful? The answer is -Technology.
Since then we have seen enormous & exponential growth in the reach & potential of technology. Today’s iPhone has more computational power than Apollo Guidance Computer used in the success of NASA’s moon mission.
Obviously, we can not use iPhone to reach the moon but most of us can not imagine even a day without spending time on Smartphone. In fact on an average, US users are spending more than 5 hours in a day on their mobile device.
The enhanced reach & capabilities of Smartphones (& availability of internet) makes technology an integral part of our daily life and all the businesses are quick to utilize this trend. Today every industry is trying to engage its customers using mobile technology and healthcare is no exception.
However unlike any other industry adoption of mobile technology is much slower in the healthcare industry; in fact, the healthcare industry has always been slow to adopt the technology.
Why Healthcare has been slow to adopt Technology-
Risk aversion-
Patient engagement tools are software driven if in case software fails then the potential of damage is much higher than any other industry. A software failure in a bank may cause loss of money but a software failure in a hospital may lead to bad health outcomes and health is always more important than wealth.
Complexity-
Hospital executives are made to understand humans, they are naturally not accustomed to using technology, in addition, they are always short of time. Most of the software solutions do not invest much time in researching what will be an easy solution for hospital executives and as a result, most of the software solutions increase the complexity of Doctor’s day to day work. As a result, doctors tend to go away from technology.
Expensive-
Healthcare technology solutions are very expensive normally, in addition, hospital executives need the training to understand the software + the customization of software to address the needs of a particular healthcare entity; this all adds up to make the technology solutions a very expensive choice. Also, implementing these technology solutions does not necessarily increase the RoI or even of it is improving the RoI; it takes a very long time.
Generic-
When a technology company develops a software; their vision is to sell the software to many clients (many healthcare entities); as a result, most of the software solutions are very generic in nature. Every Hospital has unique needs; that might not be addressed by the generic software available in the market and developing the software from scratch is always require big investment and time.
Data security-
Data security is one of the highest priorities in the healthcare industry; internet dependent technology automatically opens new doors for the data breach. Data breach threat not only make hospitals decision makers skeptical about technology solution but it has also been responsible for low number of technology solutions in the market, as any solution has to follow various compliant such as HIPAA, HL7 etc., Though these compliant are for good; but they have also been responsible for slow technology adoption in healthcare.
Impersonal:
The impotence of “consumers are taken care by humans” in the healthcare industry is much higher than any other industry, many hospital executives believe that use of technology produces impersonal care process and may eventually produce inferior health outcomes.
How Mobile Technology is changing the Technology Adoption in Healthcare-
Every business revolves around the behavior of its customers; the rapid growth in the reach & capabilities of mobile technology is changing the dynamics of every industry and even the healthcare industry which has traditionally been slow to adopt technology has started showing a keen interest in using mobile devices in engaging with their consumers (patients).
Following stats endorses the increased faith of healthcare industry in mobile technology-


Patient Engagement-
From just being a buzz word, today patient engagement has become a movement. The importance of using mobile technology is well understood by healthcare providers thus use of mobile technology in healthcare is increasing with every day.
Value based care-
The growing healthcare cost in the USA has been the cause of concern for many years now. Implementing value based care model seems to be an answer for controlling the increasing healthcare cost. The reach and acceptance of smart phone among the healthcare consumers make mobility an integral part of the implementation process of value based contracts.
Patient satisfaction scores-
According to a study, two-thirds of Americans have already shown a favor for digital health management over physical. The study also shows 79 percent of Americans said they would be willing to use a wearable device to manage their health, where a 45 percent wanted tracking of symptoms while 43 percent wanted it to manage a personal health issue or condition. These figures clearly show that to achieve patient satisfaction, healthcare industry should utilize mobile technology.
Quality of care-
The immense analytical possibility and pin point accuracy in reading and recording health care parameters, speaks volumes about the ability of technology of producing better health outcomes.
The growing consumer base of Smartphone and enhanced computing capabilities of mobile technology definitely suggests that use of mobile technology is growing to increase in the healthcare industry. However, the success of any technology solution (especially mobile based) depends on — the ease of use, how it addresses the specific needs of a hospital, how quickly it gets ready to be used and ROI.
Abhinav shrivastava
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