A Gartner expert points to AI and hospital-at-home as the biggest emerging technologies at HIMSS24

Veronica Walk, a senior director analyst specializing in emerging clinical technologies at Gartner, shared her observations from HIMSS24 regarding the dominance of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare conversations. AI and generative AI have rapidly evolved since last year, with a focus on operationalizing and scaling these technologies to reduce burden on care teams and increase clinical workforce capacity, addressing issues like clinician burnout and workforce shortages.

Virtual care technologies, particularly virtual inpatient nursing, have also gained traction, offering solutions to alleviate workforce challenges and improve patient outcomes. The proliferation of these technologies underscores the need for C-suite executives and health IT leaders to prioritize organizational problems and outcomes over technology adoption. They should assess emerging technologies using tools like Gartner's Hype Cycles and adopt a collaborative approach with executive peers to successfully implement solutions and realize value from investments. In the year ahead, leaders should focus on collaborative problem-solving and evaluating opportunities to apply emerging technologies to address pressing organizational challenges.