IDC issues mobility maturity model for healthcare organizations

A new report from IDC Health Insights provides a framework of stages, critical measures, outcomes, and actions required for healthcare organizations to "effectively advance along the successive stages of mobility competency toward a culture of mobile engagement." 

"With the opportunity to unlock the value of mobility comes the need to navigate technology alternatives, reengineer business processes, and ensure the availability of appropriately skilled staff and effective mobile platform and mobile app deployment and management," states the report, Business Strategy: A Maturity Model for Mobile in Healthcare.

To assist healthcare organizations, IDC's mobility maturity framework identifies five stages (ad hoc, opportunistic, repeatable, managed, and optimized) and four critical measures (intent, technology, people, and processes) to consider as the model and also presents outcomes and actions required for healthcare organizations to move effectively through the maturity model stages.  

"The consumerization of technology has accelerated consumers' and clinicians' demand for mobile access to health information and their desire to interact with healthcare organizations using mobile devices," said Lynne A. Dunbrack, program director at IDC Health Insights, in a written statement. "However, before healthcare organizations rush headlong into deploying mobile technology, they should assess their mobility competency, define short- and long-term goals, plan for improvements, and prioritize technology and staffing investment decisions. Our maturity model provides a framework to help healthcare organizations pursue their mobile strategies and achieve their strategic goals."

IDC's mobility maturity model for healthcare provides the "building blocks" for developing a roadmap for enterprise mobility. This framework is meant to enable healthcare organizations to:

  • Assess mobility competency and maturity
  • Use the baseline to define short- and long-term goals and plan for improvements
  • Prioritize mobility technology, staffing, and other related investment decisions
  • Uncover maturity gaps among business units or between business and IT groups
  • Leverage mobile technology for significant long-term competitive advantage

Healthcare organizations that do not invest in mobile technology will be at a competitive disadvantage, warns the report. IDC's maturity model is designed to maximize return on investments in mobility and related technology, people, and processes.

Last month, Dr. Mark Montoney, executive vice president and chief medical officer (CMO) at Nashville-based Vanguard Health Systems, wrote an article in mHealth News for his "fellow CMOs" representing healthcare organizations that are considering "taking the plunge" into mHealth. In his article, Montoney recommended that they consider three things:

  • Examine how mobility strategy would interface with other technologies enterprise-wide, especially in a multi-market system with several EHR vendors. Mobile technology should enable effective interaction across all systems.
  • Build a patient-centric mobile strategy. Mobile solutions should be adoptable and meet the workflow demands of the busy clinician. But it's not all about physician convenience. A user-friendly experience that complements clinical workflow helps ensure clinicians are using their mobile tools most effectively. When building a mobile strategy, keep in mind the ultimate goal is to improve patient care.
  • Thoroughly understand your process of care and specific pain points. In other words, don't buy a technology solution and then try to adopt it, because it looks cool or sounds good. 

To learn more:
- read the IDC report