Moving Forward with Digital Transformation, with Cybersecurity in Mind | Healthcare Informatics Mag…

The forces of disruption and innovation—whether in the form of new business combinations such as CVS-Aetna or big technology companies like Amazon coming into healthcare—are undoubtedly impacting the healthcare industry and likely herald some seismic shifts in the industry landscape. Just in the past year, the industry has seen CVS’s acquisition of Aetna, the announcement from Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase & Co. of a new healthcare venture, Cigna’s acquisition of pharmacy benefit manager company Express Scripts and Amazon’s acquisition of online pharmacy company PillPack.

According to a new survey from BDO USA, a Delaware-based accounting and advisory firm, and NEJM Catalyst, 87 percent of healthcare leaders at patient care organizations predict Amazon, of all the new entrants in healthcare, will be have the most significant impact on the industry by 2020. It is against this backdrop that many healthcare organizations are focused on digital transformation initiatives, driven by a need to increase revenue and profitability, improve the patient experience and boost operational efficiency.

According to BDO’s Middle Market Digital Transformation Survey, which polls C-level executives at companies with annual revenues between $250 million and $3 billion, 94 percent of mid-market organizations have either developed a digital transformation strategy or are in the midst of developing one. Among healthcare organizations, 37 percent are currently developing a digital transformation strategy, 28 percent have developed a strategy but haven’t yet implemented it and 24 percent are implementing a strategy, according to that survey, which polled executives in the healthcare industry well as the natural resources, financial services and retail industries.

At the same time, healthcare is the most stressed of all industries when it comes to cyberattacks and data privacy breaches, with 43 percent citing it as their biggest concern, according to the BDO survey. While these two issues—digital transformation and cybersecurity—may seem largely unrelated, two technology thought leaders, Gregory Garrett and Malcolm “Chip” Cohron, say the two issues are intertwined, particularly as healthcare organizations face evolving and increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.