A new survey shows that healthcare Chief information officers (CIOs) said they’re more likely to increase their 2017 budgets than IT professionals in other sectors.

 

According to a new Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO survey, out of 190 companies that replied to the survey on HIT spending, there were the following results:


  • 52 percent of HIT CIOs said an increase in IT spending in 2017 was planned.
  • 45 percent of CIOs across all sectors plan a budget increase.
  • 35 percent of CIOs said HIT budgets would stay at the same levels.
  • 13 percent indicated they would go down.

 

Comment accompanying the survey said that more investment in the sector was necessary.

 

See Also:HIT Disconnect Heading for Failure

 

“Despite significant increases in IT spending in recent years, the maturity of IT investment in healthcare is still lagging versus other industries and healthcare companies know they need to catch up,” said Vince Vickers, KPMG’s healthcare technology leader.  Vickers went on to say that healthcare organisations have significant operational cost pressures now more than ever, and there is an opportunity to close that gap quickly with disruptive technologies and analytic tools that open the door to the notion of what she described as ‘creative CIO’.

 

The survey highlighted the fact that the healthcare sector is trailing other industries when it comes to valuable technology skills.

 

One key area of knowledge and experience deficit is that of Big Data and analytics. In healthcare the survey said that 45 percent of CIOs were concerned at how a lack of knowledge in these areas was impacting their IT functions. This was in comparison to 39 percent of CIOs in other industries.

 

The importance of IT as a whole does not seem to be an issue with 80 percent of CIOs in healthcare recognising that they can see growth in the HIT and their roles in their organisations. But only half of the survey participants said they had a  clear digital business strategy and vision either within a unit or across an organisation. This figure is lower than other industries.

 

 

Source: www.healthdatamanagement.com

Image Credit:Information Week



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CIO HIT 2017 budget increase HIT spending to rise in 2017 but shortage of knowledge in Big Data