Research Commentary—The Digital Transformation of Healthcare: Current Status and the Road Ahead

Abstract

A s the United States expends extraordinary efforts toward the digitization of its health-care system, and as policy makers across the globe look to information technology (IT) as a means of making health-care systems safer, more affordable, and more accessible, a rare and remarkable opportunity has emerged for the information systems research community to leverage its in-depth knowledge to both advance theory and influence practice and policy. Although health IT (HIT) has tremendous potential to improve quality and reduce costs in healthcare, significant challenges need to be overcome to fully realize this potential. In this commentary, we survey the landscape of existing studies on HIT to provide an overview of the current status of HIT research. We then identify three major areas that warrant further research: (1) HIT design, implementation, and meaningful use; (2) measurement and quantification of HIT payoff and impact; and (3) extending the traditional realm of HIT. We discuss specific research questions in each domain and suggest appropriate methods to approach them. We encourage information systems scholars to become active participants in the global discourse on health-care transformation through IT.

Identifying opportunities for AI applications in healthcare — Renewing the national healthcare and social services

“…wellbeing Digital transformation in healthcare seeks solutions to make healthcare safer, more affordable and more accessible, and has lately been a very rapidly growing area of research [1]. The expertise of medical professionals has made healthcare one of the first domains, to which new artificial intelligence technologies have been deployed, with varying levels of success.…”

Cognitive workload reduction in hospital information systems

“…On the macro-level, evaluating the impact of health IT is still much needed [1]. In addition, useful insights have to be generated by studying health IT at the micro-level [1] where Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) has proven to be effective in increasing patient safety and reducing medication errors and costs [18].…”

“…In addition, useful insights have to be generated by studying health IT at the micro-level [1] where Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) has proven to be effective in increasing patient safety and reducing medication errors and costs [18]. Factors such as functionality and ease of use can vary significantly across these type of systems [1].…”

Knowledge Activation for Patient Centered Care: Bridging the Health Information Technology Divide

“…The literature indicates physicians resist the technology due to productivity issues, workflow challenges, lack of support and other issues related to the mismatch between the technology and healthcare delivery process [1,3,4,12,19,21,24,26]. A recent study by Noteboom and Hafner [22] found that "technological upset" takes place when physicians do not unlearn their past behaviors in order to use technology.…”