Healthcare organizations begin to embrace digital disruption

Information technology is transforming healthcare, increasingly being used to radically improve care and change many of the ways in which organizations have traditionally practiced medicine. Digital approaches are changing how physicians and healthcare systems diagnose diseases, treat patients and monitor their conditions on an ongoing basis. These new iterations are coming rapidly, as technology enables care to become virtual and patient-centric. Various technologies such as artificial intelligence, natural language processing, medical devices connected via the Internet of Things, smartphone-based apps and more are giving doctors myriad options for revamping patient care. This is disrupting common notions of healthcare and, at the same time, counteracting negative perceptions some clinicians may have had about information technology to date, says Lyle Berkowitz, MD, a medical informaticist and IT entrepreneur based in Chicago.