Another study confirms that healthcare organizations see digital healthcare—and the technologies that make it possible—as a big part of their future.

But for now a new survey of 400 healthcare executives by SAP finds that only 2% of respondents have completed an enterprise digital healthcare project that includes cloud computing, big data analytics and artificial intelligence among other key digital and mobile healthcare technologies.

Healthcare organizations see the value in investing in digital healthcare. 70% of respondents say the latest digital healthcare technologies are “essential” to growth, competitive advantage and customer experience.

“The shift to pay-for-performance programs and quality measures has necessitated a strong digital transformation strategy, which reinforces our focus of providing the best possible care for patients,” says Florida Hospital chief medical information officer Dr. Philip Styne. Florida Hospital, a part of the Adventist Health System, operates a facility with 2.274 beds and employs 2,230 physicians.

Florida Hospital has a digital healthcare base that includes Hello Well, a recently redesigned patient portal and mobile app that lets patients see doctors online, book appointments, access medical records, pay bills and renew prescriptions among other tasks. But many healthcare organizations are not nearly as advanced in the rollout of digital healthcare technologies, according to the SAP survey.

For example, compared to the 2% of healthcare organizations that have fully implemented digital healthcare, 54% of institutions have completed at least one pilot project, 32% have rolled out digital systems in some aspect of their operation and 23% are still planning for how to get started, according to the SAP study.

Over the next two years the biggest area where healthcare organizations, primarily hospitals and health systems, will invest first is in better analytics, the survey says. 76% of respondents will invest in better analytics to understand big data, which are extremely large data sets that may be analyzed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behavior and interactions.

Analytics is followed by cloud computing at 65%, healthcare internet of things (46%) and artificial intelligence at 28%. “Unlocking actionable data insights in real time is critical for the future success for value-based care,” says SAP Health Global president Thomas Laur.

The SAP survey didn’t include how much hospitals, health systems and other organizations are currently spending—or plan to spend—on digital healthcare. But just under one-half of all respondents (48%) see lack of “mature” technologies as their prime reason for not going digital faster.

But in five years 86% of healthcare executives see digital healthcare as mainstream, especially as the U.S. healthcare system shifts away from a business model of fee for service to value-based care where providers are paid on the quality vs. the quantity of treatment they provide patients. “Digital innovation will fuel the next wave of breakthroughs in healthcare and accelerate the broader shift toward data-driven care for health organizations,” Laur says.

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