Voting is closed.
It’s official.
One of the FierceHealthcare office favorites—blockchain—was officially knocked out of the running. A total of 55% of your votes went to artificial intelligence in a stunning third round of the #FierceMadness Health Buzzwords Tournament ranking those terms that have become most overused in healthcare.
Among the reasons you cited for backing AI? "They're both technology-based, which means they're 'sexy' for private equity firms. AI, however, is little understood and very over-hyped," one voter responded.
Or another one of you put simply: "AI is the term that truly bugs me."
That's not to say there wasn't support for blockchain. Among backers for blockchain's overuse was a voter who said: "No one gets this unless you mean stacking blocks like a small child."
With 113 votes in this round, here's a look the rest of how the round shook out:
- Big data walloped telehealth with 75% of your votes.
As one of you said: "You can't swing a sledge-hammer without hitting a consultant selling the idea of big data. Big data is nothing if you can't do something with it."
- Disruption unseated synergies 61% to 39%.
- “Breaking down silos” (which is this writer’s personal favorite) won out over platform 63% to 37%.
"It is like all of a sudden people realized that communication helps," one of our voters wrote.
- Value proposition beat continuum of care with 55% of the vote.
"'Value proposition' is all-but-meaningless and very common, so it gets my vote," one of you said.
However, another voter said: "Continuum of care is a nice way to say 'We've thought about handing patients off to downstream care providers. But we still haven't created a solid transition plan and team to implement.'"
- In a near tie, outcomes-based just barely squeaked out a victory over patient engagement.
- Interoperability kicked out market-driven reforms 62% to 38%. (As one voter put it, "This is the golden duck of healthcare—your ATM card can work on the moon, but you can't access all of your health data."
- Opioid crisis moves on to the next round over incentive with 58% of the vote.
Some of you took issue with opioid crisis being in the running in the first place: "The opioid crisis is REALITY. Not a buzzword."
Despite the very real concerns of opioid addiction in the U.S., other voters had the sense opioids had become another peg in a pitch. "You can't open an email without someone mentioning opioids."
Round 5 of voting is open and it's getting real, folks! Help us pick the words that are headed to our Final Four of #FierceMadness.
And don't forget to tweet your picks to us @FierceHealth.