Early tech adopters in healthcare reap the rewards

Much has been said about how far healthcare lags behind other industry sectors but early adopters in healthcare are reaping valuable returns on the investment, according to study conducted by Harvard Business Review Analytics Services and sponsored by Verizon.

Consumer behavior and expectations are the leading factors in the changing healthcare market, according to 61 percent of respondents in the study of 672 industry executives, "The Digital Dividend: First Mover Advantage."

Just over one-quarter (27 percent) of healthcare organizations proactively seek to get first-mover advantage, 36 percent buy new technology after others have proven its benefits and 35 percent wait until something has become well established, according to the study. New technology has "significantly changed" the core strategy at 27 percent of healthcare organizations.

The responding healthcare execs said technology had somewhat or significantly changed strategy and business models (57 percent); responsiveness to customers (63 percent); internal collaboration (63 percent), employee productivity (68 percent); and security of data (65 percent).

Two-thirds (64 percent) of healthcare organizations reported they had extensively adopted mobile technology, however, 36 percent of respondents said their organization's aversion to risk was the biggest barrier to adopting technology.