At HealthLeaders’ recent Chief Digital Executive Exchange (CDEX), top healthcare execs wrestled with defining the true value of an expensive – but potentially transformational – technology. Healthcare’s digital health executives have a value problem. The industry’s struggle to control rampant costs is forcing executives to dig more deeply into their technology spending habits – especially where and how much they want to invest in AI. And that’s forcing them to confront different definitions of ROI. During the recent HealthLeaders Chief Digital Executive Exchange (CDEX) in Washington D.C., leaders from several health systems and hospitals came together to discuss how they’re managing technology strategy and budgets, particularly around AI. Some even floated the idea of creating separate budgets for new tech and AI. The prevailing opinion is that while AI has the potential to upend and transform healthcare, real change is hard. And that makes it hard to qualify investments. “We have to create some discipline to ensure we focus on the most impactful things,” said Abby Kral, Chair of Revenue Strategy and Innovation at the Mayo Clinic. “We might have a really great or novel business solution … but if it’s not being used or has limited scale, its impact is harder to measure”. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(“dfp-ad-hl_native1”); }); Much of the conversation during the two-day event centered on ROI. Indeed, healthcare organizations across the country are trying to justify their AI costs by defining the technology’s value – from reduced clinician stress and burnout to less time on the computer…
