PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA—Healthcare reform, Accountable Care Organizations, readmissions, and reimbursement rates are just a few of the challenges facing today's healthcare leaders. Balancing costs and savings potential for new technologies also weighs heavily on their shoulders. A new Watch List from ECRI Institute, an independent nonprofit that researches best approaches to improving patient care, provides a roadmap to 10 technology issues that healthcare leaders should have on their radar in 2013 and beyond.
ECRI Institute's Top 10 C-Suite Watch List: Hospital Technology Issues for 2013, available for free, reflects ongoing impacts of healthcare reform initiatives and new technology developments. Some of the technologies represent significant capital investments, such as PET/MR. Others, including mobile health, metabolic surgery, and low-dose computed tomography lung screening, may greatly affect operations and care patterns.
"New demands for information and clinical technology are top issues for executives and objective perspectives are critical," says Jeffrey C. Lerner, PhD, president and chief executive officer, ECRI Institute.
Technology issues on this year's Watch List include:
- Electronic Health Records: You've achieved Meaningful Use, but how safe is your EHR?
- Mobile Health: What exactly is it, and what can it do for me?
- Alarm Integration Technology: Will you be able to reduce alarm fatigue and improve alarm management?
- Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery: Is TAVI ready for liftoff?
- Imaging and Surgery: What imaging won't be done in an OR?
- PET/MR: The hybrid that everyone has to have?
- Bariatric Surgery: Is it a cure for type II diabetes?
- Supply Chain: Will MR-compatible pacemakers explode your supply expenses?
- Radiation Dose Safety: CT dose limbo dance—how low can you go?
- Lung Cancer Screenings: Enough lung capacity to get in the race?
ECRI Institute (www.ecri.org), a nonprofit organization, dedicates itself to bringing the discipline of applied scientific research to healthcare to discover which medical procedures, devices, drugs, and processes are best to enable improved patient care. As pioneers in this science for 45 years, ECRI Institute marries experience and independence with the objectivity of evidence-based research. Strict conflict-of-interest guidelines ensure objectivity. ECRI Institute is designated an Evidence-based Practice Center by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. ECRI Institute PSO is listed as a federally certified Patient Safety Organization by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Find ECRI Institute on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ECRIInstitute) and on Twitter (www.twitter.com/ECRI_Institute).
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