New Study Identifies, Clarifies Healthcare Leaders' Goals: Harness Data, Standardize Care and Leverage IT to Enable More Connected Cardiology

CHICAGO, March 24, 2020 (Newswire.com) - ​Cardiovascular Business today released the key findings of the Cardiovascular Leaders Survey: Vision on Innovation & IT 2020. The new research, sponsored by Philips, sheds light on the cardiovascular service line, its goals, business and IT structures, and identifies problem areas that are ripe for IT investment as well as change in care delivery and management.

Too much and too siloed data, lack of funding and leadership, and fragmented cardiovascular service lines are among the challenges leaders cited for the report: Mapping Out Connected Cardiology's Data-driven Success. Respondents included 353 executives, physicians and administrators who lead healthcare systems, integrated delivery networks, academic medical centers, hospitals and cardiovascular service lines, cardiology departments and physician groups in the U.S. (97%) and Canada (3%).

Decentralized operations and data silos derailing consistent care

Looking across cardiovascular medicine, leaders in 2020 are focused on business as well as clinical goals: increasing operational efficiencies, spurring growth and improving quality. But health systems are struggling to turn aims into accomplishments, as 75% of respondents report a lack of enterprise-wide standardization of care, operations and services. Catheterization labs run differently, hospitals in the same network use multiple clinical IT systems, and EMRs and imaging results—not to mention mission-critical patient data—are often locked in data siloes.

"In this climate, cardiologists often struggle to access the patient data they need," notes Mary C. Tierney, Cardiovascular Business' chief content strategist. "In fact, results of this survey show 44% of health systems don't offer EMR access to images, measurements and calculations from their cardiovascular image and information management system (CVIS). Another 32% of cardiologists and clinicians have difficulty accessing EMR data via CVIS. Those numbers show the scope of the data disconnect."

Central to more connected cardiology is a single, tightly integrated digital infrastructure uniting technology, people and processes. A growing number of health systems seek the solution by using one vendor for CVIS. Some 47% of health system leaders report they have plans in place or are considering a transition to one CVIS serving the enterprise.

"This report allows us to look through the eyes of leaders in cardiovascular health and across healthcare systems," says Harm-Jan Wessels, Business Leader, Cardiology Informatics & Interoperability Solutions at Philips. "Some of the data validates what customers are telling us as they struggle to unite cardiology images and patient information. Their departments lack standardization of both IT and care. By moving to more comprehensive, integrated informatics solutions, healthcare providers can enable patients, clinicians and hospital administrators to fully harness the power of information and translate it into actionable insights—a critical next step to advance the healthcare enterprise."

Priorities of the Cardiovascular Service Line

The report also looks at data through the eyes of C-level execs, chiefs of cardiology, cardiovascular service line directors and cardiologists. So what about the top goals of the C-suite? Reducing costs, realizing growth, improving quality, attaining efficiencies and boosting job satisfaction for staff. And here are the top challenges of cardiovascular service line directors: increasing operational performance, recruiting and retaining clinical staff, clinician burnout, reducing readmissions while optimizing lengths of stay, and data analytics and management.

For more insight and data, view the whole report here: CardiovascularBusiness.com/CVITreport2020.

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About Cardiovascular Business

Cardiovascular Business, a TriMed Media brand, is a trusted and interactive learning community that engages an audience of healthcare executives and cardiovascular physicians, leaders, clinicians and administrators, with more than 100,000 unique visitors each month. Our team covers news and creates editorial content and custom content programs—via video, audio, print, digital and virtual platforms—focused on strategies in economics, technology and practice. Our goal is assisting healthcare organizations and innovative companies to help drive clinical, operational and financial excellence across the cardiovascular service line. For more information, visit CardiovascularBusiness.com and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Background on the Report

Cardiovascular Business and affiliate news and information outlet HealthExec embarked on this survey to gain a deeper understanding of the current state of cardiovascular health, the role CVIS plays and the goals of cardiovascular leaders over the next few years. The respondents work for 306 unique health systems, hospitals and physician groups across 46 states and six Canadian provinces. Philips is the sponsor of the survey but did not have a role in data collection or collation.

Source: ​​​​​Cardiovascular Business