Study explores solutions to data analytics barriers including stakeholder misalignment, poor data quality, interoperability limitations and lack of holistic data strategy, IT skills and budget
Sydney, Australia & Auckland, New Zealand – March 14, 2024 –Â InterSystems, a creative data technology provider dedicated to helping customers solve the most critical scalability, interoperability and speed problems, today revealed that Australian and New Zealand healthcare organisations are making technology upgrades a business priority as they struggle to harness the power of data analytics.
The ANZ State of Healthcare Analytics & Interoperability Study 2024[1], sponsored by InterSystems and conducted by tech advisory firm Ecosystm, surveyed 240 healthcare executives to understand their business and data challenges and explore solutions. Covering public, private, large, small, city and rural organisations, 68% of respondents were from public hospitals and 53% from large (200+ bed) hospitals.
The survey found that upgrading technology is now healthcare organisations’ second-ranked business priority (47% of respondents) after complying with government mandates (68%). Cost optimisation (47%) and improving clinical outcomes (42%) are also important.
“Legacy systems do not support advanced analytics to meet conflicting business priorities like optimising costs and improving clinical outcomes,” said Darren Jones, Country Manager, Australia and New Zealand for InterSystems. “Technology upgrades can enable data synergy – where different health data sources are managed comprehensively and interact seamlessly in real time – for better informed decision making.”
However, the study found that stakeholder misalignment, poor data quality, interoperability limitations, and lack of a holistic data strategy, IT skills and budget are common roadblocks to organisations achieving data synergy and harnessing the full power of analytics.
Stakeholder misalignment
Identifying patient risk was a key outcome expected from analytics investments, according to 43% of clinician leaders surveyed, as was reducing clinical errors (40%) and improving patient outcomes (37%). On the other hand, while 37% of non-clinician leaders agreed reducing clinical errors should be a key outcome, relatively few were focussed on identifying patient risk (23%) or improving patient outcomes (20%). Non clinicians expected analytics investments to reduce costs (37%) and optimise processes (37%), something only 20% of clinicians expected.
“Data synergy makes it possible to find a common path between clinicians’ risk-based approach and the value-based approach of other leaders,” said the study’s author, Sash Mukherjee, VP Industry Insights, Ecosystm. “Both approaches can be addressed through advanced interoperability and analytics, supporting collaboration across the care continuum.”
Poor data quality and interoperability limitations
When asked about their top data challenges in implementing a successful analytics solution, 52% of respondents nominated data quality, with 38% citing the lack of a single data repository, and 37% the inability to access data in real time. Over half (53%) said they did not fully trust the quality of data used in their organisations.
Healthcare organisations are also limited in the number of datasets they can analyse. While 50% of respondents said their organisations’ analytics solutions used in-patient clinical data, less than half used data from patient administration (43%), diagnostic (40%), clinical outpatient (38%) or communications systems (23%), and very few used access log (20%) or sensor/device data (17%).
Lack of holistic data strategy, IT skills and budget
Regarding technology upgrades, the study found that only 35% of healthcare organisations are guided by a robust digital transformation strategy. Most organisations without a data strategy focus on data interoperability and real-time data access (47%) or a centralised data repository (18%). However, the study recommends a more holistic data strategy that includes data governance policies to maintain accuracy and incorporate data interoperability for real-time access across all stakeholders, something only 13% reported.
However, the biggest challenge in health analytics adoption, according to the study, is a lack of IT skills (65% of respondents), heightened by a lack of staff with the required combination of business and analytics skills (53%). Six in ten (60%) also said securing budget remains a key challenge in implementing successful analytics solutions.
Technology upgrades could overcome analytics challenges
The technology upgrades many healthcare organisations now prioritise could help overcome these challenges. “For example, organisations should consider adopting technology that allows clinicians, operations teams, administrative staff and senior management to uncover real-time insights through self-service without intervention from the technology team,” said Jones.
The good news is that 67% of organisations are open to adopting smart data fabrics that integrate self-service analytics capabilities including data exploration, business intelligence, natural language processing and machine learning. 37% of survey respondents said they are evaluating or already using smart data fabrics, and 30% said they will be beneficial in the future.
The full ANZ State of Healthcare Analytics & Interoperability Study 2024 is available at: https://www.intersystems.
[1] The ANZ State of Healthcare Analytics & Interoperability Study is an ongoing annual survey that has so far captured the views of 240 healthcare executives. Responses were collected from 150 healthcare executives in Australia and 90 in New Zealand in 2022 and 2023.
