Hospitals and health systems plan to invest more in digital means for communicating with and serving patients, but their top priority is securing their web portals and internal networks, according to a new survey of 20 major health systems from the Center of Connected Medicine in Pittsburgh.

92% of health systems plan to increase spending on technology to boost cybersecurity in 2018. Two-thirds of respondents said they will increase their cybersecurity staff. But rather than invest wholesale in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and wearables more health systems will use existing means such as their data portal to collect more patient-generated data.

“Health system executives plan to invest in technologies to help improve overall strategy and response, such as system and organization controls and security information and event management, and increasing security around medical devices,” the report says. “Other areas executives reported planning to focus cybersecurity resources include security services, outside monitoring services, and retaining consultants for cybersecurity assessment and attack/breach response.”

When it comes to new ways to collect data from patients, 54% of health systems are looking to add more patient-generated data next year. But they intend to collect the data through patient portals and wireless home monitoring equipment. Less than a quarter of respondents expect wearables (17%) or mobile health apps (21%) to be sources of valuable patient-generated data in 2018, per the survey. However, health system executives also note they are planning for data provided by patients to make up a larger portion of a patient’s health record in the future.

“Health systems are relatively early in their journey to incorporate and utilize patient-generated data and have not yet seen a significant impact on care delivery or patient experience,” the report says. “However, executives expect patient-generated data to eventually impact delivery of care by changing care models and improving patient experience.”

Other report findings include:

• Predictive analytics. More than half of respondents are using or plan to begin using genomic testing as part of providing personalized medicine to patients. Those efforts are focused on oncology, anesthesia and pharmacogenetics.
• Virtual care. Less than half of respondents receive reimbursement for virtual care (39%), or remote monitoring (45%). But of the respondents not receiving reimbursement, 71% expect to be reimbursed for virtual care in 2018.
• Artificial intelligence. Compared with other information technology priorities for 2018, implementation of artificial intelligence applications remains a low or very low priority at nearly two-thirds of responding health systems. Health system executives say artificial intelligence is in its early stages where proving its value is difficult, but they expect the technology to have greater impact in the future.
• Remote patient monitoring. For health systems leaders, the primary drivers for implementing remote patient monitoring programs are improving quality/safety (75%), lowering costs (46%), and demand from patients (42%). Other drivers include enhancing the system of care across the organization and market competition.
• Health systems most commonly use, or plan to add in 2018, telehealth services in clinical areas such as stroke (92%), psychology/mental health (92%), primary care (71%), and urgent care (63%). Other clinical areas in which health systems currently use telehealth include critical care, ICU, ophthalmology, and home health.
• Predictive analytics. Hospitals health systems expect predictive analytics to provide significant value in areas such as patient safety/quality (71%), readmissions (71%), and clinical decision support (71%) in 2018. Additionally, health systems anticipate value from predictive analytics in operational areas such as productivity, staffing, revenue cycle, and scheduling/no-shows, as well as other clinical areas such as access, length of stay, sepsis monitoring, and post-acute care planning.

The Center for Connected Medicine bills itself as a collaborative healthcare executive briefing center jointly operated by GE Healthcare, IBM, Lenovo Health, Nokia and UPMC.

Keep up with latest coverage on digital healthcare by signing up for Internet Health Management News today.