In considering the twists and turns facing the health IT industry in 2015, it's interesting to read through others' forecasts for the coming year.
For instance, InformationWeek Healthcare runs down five trends it foresees for 2015. Among those outlined are increased integration efforts due to consolidation; updated treatment guidelines in the face of new technology; increased patient engagement thanks to better tools and improved pricing transparency; IT being used to monitor training more closely; and analytics being used more to help organizations financially.
Politico, meanwhile, examines the legislative agenda for health IT in 2015, breaking down its preview into six silos: FDA corrections, telemedicine, interoperability, Meaningful Use, privacy and data policies and the future of the 21st Century Cares initiative.
IHealthBeat presents opinions from 12 well-respected leaders from all walks of the health IT industry--including Acting Deputy National Coordinator for Health IT Jon White--on the biggest remaining barriers to widespread adoption of Meaningful Use and technology, as a whole.
"We expect to see even more attention to achieving greater interoperability across the public and private sectors--among consumers, providers, payers and the various government [federal, state, local] to better serve the individual," White told iHealthBeat. "Privacy and security of health information will continue to be an important part of interoperability."
Organizations also shared their opinions on what the biggest health IT issues of 2015 will be. The American Medical Association, as it does every year, published a list of the top 10 issues for its stakeholders to watch in 2015. No. 1 on the list? The administrative load and competing regulatory programs, most notably the Meaningful Use program and ICD-10 implementation.
PwC also put together a list of top issues facing the industry in 2015. Decreased privacy, innovation, and an increase in transparency, portable medical devices and do-it-yourself gadgets--in particular, mobile applications--all were highlighted as things to watch in healthcare, at large, in the coming year.
Our own Judy Mottl also shares her thoughts on what she sees as the keys to mHealth growth in 2015 in FierceMobileHealthcare.
For more:
- check out the InformationWeek piece
- read the Politico article
- here's iHealthBeat's post