Today’s healthcare CIO: Enterprise strategist or technology tactician?

A new survey shows that, in the generative AI era, two of every three U.S. hospitals let the CIO’s office handle the selection and acquisition of data analytics platforms.

In the rest, almost a third of the field, these duties are performed by decentralized business partners who do not report to the CIO.

The Harris Poll conducted the survey on behalf of data platform supplier Arcadia. The team received responses from 102 senior healthcare leaders or decision makers in IT.

Most healthcare CIOs are leading or influencing strategy at their organization, the authors of the survey report write. They note that almost 9 of 10 (87%) would describe the current role of the CIO at their organization as either a strategy influencer (47%) or a strategy leader (40%). 

This suggests the “heavy involvement” of healthcare CIOs in “setting, refining and executing business strategy, whether set by themselves or others,” the authors write. 

At the same time, they point out, many healthcare CIOs are involved in day-to-day operations:

‘While the role of [healthcare] CIO may be seen as more strategic, many IT decision-makers (58%) feel that CIOs are primarily centered around tactical execution currently, with an emphasis on day-to-day operations rather than long-term strategic development.’

Here are three key findings from the report, which Arcadia released Sept. 4. 

1. The vast majority of IT decision-makers in healthcare see the role of AI as very important or even vital in their organization currently—and even more so in the next five years. 

These leaders “admit feeling pressure from all sides to implement AI,” the authors note. “They largely see AI as a way to analyze large patient data sets to identify trends and create population health intervention strategies and analyze individual patient data.” More: 

‘Healthcare IT leaders expect to see shifts in the skills and expertise that healthcare organizations need. But they see these technological shifts as opportunities for current employees to spend less time on mundane tasks and more time on intricate skill-building.’ 

2. Most healthcare CIOs are leading or influencing strategy at their organization, and their level of strategic influence is only expected to grow. 

However, the authors add, CIOs are also heavily involved in day-to-day operations, with most leaders reporting that CIOs’ roles are primarily centered around tactical execution currently, with an emphasis on the day-to-day operations rather than long-term strategic development. 

‘Further, technical teams spend most of their time on tactical tasks and as a result struggle to contribute strategically to the organization.’

3. Healthcare IT decision-makers consider tech-related business priorities among their organization’s top priorities. 

In regards to an enterprise data analytics platform, most of these leaders identify elements like robust security and governance controls, minimized latency and real-time access to be very important elements for such a platform. However, not many report that their current platform supports these elements, the authors remark. 

‘While these leaders overwhelmingly agree that organizations that effectively harness data are better equipped to remain competitive and resilient, they recognize that communication between IT teams and clinical staff is often the biggest hurdle in implementing new tech.’

Download the report here.