Healthcare in 21 years will be driven by 'radically interoperable data'

Deloitte’s view of the future: empowered consumers taking advantage of open, secure platforms that intermingle disparate information for care coordination and wellness “nudges.” Now we just need to get there. As we focus this month on the promise and potential of digital transformation across healthcare, it’s encouraging enough to take stock of the huge advances that have already been made in the past decade of the post-EHR era.

But as we all know, there’s a still plenty of room for innovation and improvement as patients and providers look to take advantage of the rich profusion of data that already exists and is growing near-exponentially.

A major impediment, of course, is interoperability. But progress is being made, and momentum seems to be picking up speed – particularly as CMS and ONC prepare to finalize some era-defining rules they say will finally compel some of healthcare’s most foot-dragging entrenched interest to embrace data exchange and empower consumers.

And if those don’t quite do the trick, there are plenty of hungry companies champing at the bit to help force some big changes of their own.

For the Amazons, Apples, Googles and Salesforces, healthcare is an “untapped market for them; the margins are much better than retail, and there they’re making significant moves,” said David Biel, U.S. healthcare consulting leader at Deloitte.