Cyber security, big data analytics and AI among top digital technologies for healthcare and life sciences companies : Report

Infosys research report titled, Digital Outlook for the Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry, highlights how digital technologies deployed at organisations are improving existing operations, solving new problems, and creating new opportunities

Infosys research report titled, Digital Outlook for the Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry, highlights how digital technologies deployed at organisations are improving existing operations, solving new problems, and creating new opportunities. The research polled IT and business decision makers in the healthcare and life sciences industry as part of a global survey to discover the opportunities presented by new digital technologies.

Key findings from the report stated that cyber security, big data analytics and AI are among the top three digital technologies being utilized the most by healthcare and life sciences companies today. According to the healthcare companies surveyed, investing in technologies for big data analytics for predicting risk and the onset of health problems (73 per cent), EHR systems modernisation (57per cent), and remote hospital-like care delivery (49 per cent) are the most commonly reported trends for the next three years which will make a positive impact on their organisation. Whereas life sciences respondents described that improving cyber security (64 per cent), using cloud-based technologies (54 per cent), and fostering industry collaboration (47 per cent) as the top trends. Healthcare providers plan to invest in digital technologies in the coming 12 months. EHR systems (68 per cent) and big data analytics (61 per cent) are currently receiving investments from most companies who consider them a trend in the coming three years. Life sciences organisations plan to invest in digital technologies in the coming 12 months, but not all investments are in the top trends: 76 pe rcent of those who consider it a trend over the next three years were investing in technologies to improve cyber security for protection of patient and trial data. A majority of healthcare and life sciences respondents said that their organisation could improve both existing skills and technologies in preparation for implementing the top trends of the next three years.

Infosys commissioned independent market research company Vanson Bourne to undertake research to understand the use of digital technologies and key trends within nine different sectors. From October to December 2017, the quantitative and qualitative subset of the study was carried out, interviewing 1,000 senior IT and business decision makers in organizations that use digital technologies. Respondents were from organisations with 1,000 employees or more and $500 million global annual revenue or higher across verticals such as automotive, banking, CPG, healthcare, industrial manufacturing, insurance, life sciences, retail and utilities.