What marketers need to know about the Gartner Hype Cycle for Healthcare 

It’s no surprise that the most significant influence on healthcare technology investments this year was the COVID-19 pandemic. The need to scale contact tracing, testing, clinical trials, and hopefully soon, a vaccine, shone a light on providers’ needs to access better data and increased collaboration across the healthcare ecosystem.

The Gartner Hype Cycle is a methodology for determining whether an emerging technology in a particular industry is commercially viable or a passing fad. It helps healthcare delivery organizations (HDOs) plan for the future and budget for new investments and aids vendors with defining strategic roadmaps. 

In this summary of the 2020 Gartner Hype Cycle for Healthcare Providers, you will learn more about:

• Top trends dominating the digital transformation of healthcare
• New innovation profiles recognized this year
• Inventive opportunities to use these learnings for brand building

Trends driving digital transformation 

In addition to the COVID-19 outbreak, investments in the digital transformation of healthcare were dominated by:

• Maturing adoption of AI and other automation technologies across the healthcare enterprise.
• Increasing demand for digital twins and access to real-time data.

While COVID brought other industries screeching to a halt, real-time digital data and AI helped keep critical healthcare services running during the pandemic. These technologies were instrumental in transforming the delivery of care this year. 

Gartner anticipates that the use of real-time data and advanced analytics will characterize the transformation of clinical care and operations in healthcare over the next three years. They further predict that the digital health technologies implemented during the past decade will start to be optimized to fight physician burnout and create cost efficiencies.

New innovation profiles 

This year, Gartner added three innovation profiles to the Hype Cycle for Healthcare Providers:

• Ambient digital scribe: solutions to automate clinical documentation and address physician burnout.
• Digital health platform (DHP): an architectural approach that enables healthcare delivery organizations (HDOs) to adapt quickly to a changing landscape, representing a shift away from monolithic applications. 
• Digital twins: a virtual representation of an entity that accelerates decision-making, resulting in reduced clinical risk and more competitive advantage. 

Gartner also retired AI healthcare advisors from the Hype Cycle as applications in healthcare have matured. The initial intent of this profile is now more accurately met by the precision medicine and precision health and genomics profiles in the Hype Cycle. 

Brand building is about meeting the needs of future clients

For marketers, identifying the technology solutions your industry will adopt in the future goes well beyond your product roadmap. 

The real value is that you have the opportunity to establish your brand as a thought leader in the space and anticipate your future clients’ needs, even before they do. 

Remember, brand positioning is a long game. You’re doing more than generating this year’s leads; you’re introducing future buyers to your organization.

Even for established brands, writing blogs and white papers, plus publishing thought pieces in key media on emerging technology in your industry, can set you apart from the competition. 

What does the Hype Cycle mean for your healthcare or life sciences brand?

Staying ahead of the curve and being an early adopter of new technologies can give your brand a competitive advantage. It will help you meet the needs of your current client base and lay the foundation for future growth. 

You can read the full 2020 Gartner Hype Cycle for Healthcare Providers here. 

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