Seriously?
Yup.
The rate of technology adoption, especially in healthcare, is one of the biggest bottlenecks that prevents us from moving forward.
Historically speaking, healthcare is one of the slowest industries when it comes to adopting new technologies.
And honestly, it’s for good reason.
Everyone knows that healthcare is the most complicated, nuanced, and delicate industry in the world.
The extent to which we need to consider things like:
- Patient safety
- Ethics
- Equity
and other complex factors, can’t be matched by any other industry.
Such barriers make technological disruption an extremely difficult and time-consuming process (compared to other fields).
However, we eventually still move forward. Why?
The catalyst that overcomes all of these barriers is behavior change. Widespread consensus about what needs to get done ASAP moves us forward by years in a matter of months (eg. the COVID-19 pandemic).
Yet, this is the most difficult thing to accomplish, specifically in healthcare, for a number of valid reasons:
- The Difficulty in Training & Upskilling the Workforce
- Familiarity Among Chaos
- Increased Complexity
- Unwanted Responsibilities
So why should you care? And why now?
The barriers listed above can, to some extent, be overcome by organizations to facilitate behavior change.
Upskilling
One reason it’s difficult to upskill a team is due to a lack of resources and support.
In rare cases it’s a lack of willingness to learn, but that usually happens when employees aren’t taught the importance of learning a particular skill or technology.
If a professional is made to understand why it’s important for them to learn something, and given enough support to actually learn it, they rarely fail to get it done.
Familiarity
One reason healthcare professionals cling to familiarity is due to the chaotic nature of healthcare.
Obviously, adopting new technology comes with changes for all stakeholders.
And unfortunately, given the unpredictability of most clinicians’ day-to-day lives, they (and maybe you too) grab onto whatever’s comfortable.
Namely, the tools that they know how to use well.
Of course, a single organization can’t make healthcare as a whole more predictable. However, as an organization you can certainly streamline workflows to make some aspects more consistent for your team.
For example, having better protocols in place for when someone doesn’t show up and their responsibilities need to be divided among those who did.
Complexity
When deciding which technologies to incorporate into your organization, you want to simplify, not complicate.
It’s very obvious, well-known advice that probably isn’t helpful just from saying it.
More practically speaking, it’s crucial that you measure and compare outcomes of using the technology vs not using it (i.e. making data-driven decisions).
It’s also important that you measure the outcomes that your team cares about, not just the ones that directly contribute to your bottom-line.
Some of these would include:
- Time-saved
- Ease of use
- User friendliness
- Customer support
Responsibility
Clinicians didn’t sign up to spend huge chunks of their time on administrative duties.
Yet, that’s what the vast majority of them are forced to deal with.
Obviously, every job comes with things that aren’t exactly enjoyable.
That being said, any intervention that truly removes the burden of unwanted responsibilities (eg. admin work) is one that clinicians are more than willing to adopt.
As an example, look at all of the companies working with providers to “automate” documentation.
To learn more about this you can check out this post that covers how augmented intelligence is changing healthcare.
As you can see, although individual organizations can’t completely eliminate these barriers, there are some things that can be done about them.
And when most organizations within a health system do what’s possible to overcome these issues, widespread technological adoption becomes more realistic.
Where’s the proof?
33% of healthcare professionals say tech frustrates them
Eagle Hill Consulting used data from a survey of healthcare professionals (2021) to assess attitudes pertaining to technology usage in the workplace.
Unfortunately, 37% of healthcare employees reported being frustrated with technology. What’s more is that 28% believed that their company did not give them the training they needed to succeed with the tech.
Ophthalmologists, Dermatologists, and Radiation Oncologists concerned with AI’s medical liability
A study published in Nature (2021) surveyed clinicians across Ophthalmology, Dermatology, Radiology, and Radiation Oncology to assess their attitudes on the usage of artificial intelligence in clinical settings.
They found that among the clinicians who responded to the survey, 71% believed that AI would improve their field of medicine, indicating a positive outlook. They cited “streamlining of monotonous tasks” as a key benefit of implementing AI.
Sameer Badlani, MD, FACP of Fairview says healthcare has too many pilots
In an interview with Becker’s Health IT, Dr. Badlani described a pragmatic vision for the future of healthcare and the role technology will play in it.
He pointed out that healthcare has more pilots than the airline industry, and that we’re guilty of prioritizing small-scale experiments over widespread implementation.
He believes we need to focus on scalable solutions that address real-world challenges.
Most clinicians’ report their workplaces not encouraging the usage of new rehabilitation technologies
A study published in 2024 conducted an online survey to measure clinicians’ perspectives and usage of rehabilitation technologies.
They found that fewer than 20% reported that their workplaces encouraged the use of new rehabilitation technologies in practice.
Additionally, fewer than 15% of 2011-2020 graduate clinicians reported feeling prepared to use rehabilitation technology after entering the workforce.
Action Steps
Below are some ideas for how you can help facilitate behavior change in your organization
- Experiment! 🙂
- Hire the consultant, try the new tool, etc. Treat every “experiment” as an opportunity to either learn, increase revenue, or make your life easier.
- It almost never seems like it’s “worth it” given all the things on your plate, but that’s precisely why it’s a good idea to allow yourself some room to experiment.
- And purely from a strategy standpoint, your competitors are testing new solutions that you’re ignoring, which will put you at a bigger disadvantage as time passes.
- Invest In A Good LMS (Learning Management System)
- A good LMS can automate a huge part of training your employees.
- However, it’s important to not be 100% reliant on an LMS. Even the best ones have their limitations.
- So in addition to using an LMS, you can carve out some time to clarify doubts and address concerns that your employees have (as a group).
- Kind of like office hours from back in school, but for your business 🙂
- Collect Feedback Regularly
- Collect feedback regularly. You can send out an anonymous survey every month to check in on your team and see how everyone’s doing.
- Your goal might be to make one change every month that benefits the majority of your employees.
- Not only does this show them you care, but it also makes them want to work harder for you. Happier employees are more productive employees!
That’s A Wrap!
See you next Saturday 🙂
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