As new and emerging technologies like improved AI and robotic process automation continue to flood into healthcare systems, the industry is increasingly finding itself submerged under massive amounts of data. With all the data to sort through, many in the industry forecasted a dramatic rise in analytic investments. In 2015, the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions sat down with several healthcare organizations to dig into just how much was being invested in analytics. Earlier this year, they released a comprehensive follow-up study, contrasting the results from their earlier report and shedding light on the state of analytics in healthcare and what it means for the industry as a whole.
We’ll breakdown a few of the key takeaways from Deloitte’s survey and how they pertain to healthcare talent acquisition in 2019 and beyond:
Value of Analytics is Growing
At the highest level, Deloitte reports that adoption and interest in analytics for healthcare systems has accelerated the last three years. As data continues to show its value across all facets of the health system from cost, quality of care, population health management, and customer engagement, organizations increase their efforts to flesh out and solidify their analytical departments. Reflecting this sentiment, Deloitte’s survey reported organizational growth in the following concepts and areas since their initial 2015 survey:
- A defined strategy and vision (70% in 2018 vs. 40% in 2015)
- Dedicated analytics department (88% in 2018 vs. 76% in 2015)
- C-Level analytics leadership (30% in 2018 vs. 12% in 2015)
- Formal data governance process (68% in 2018 vs. 58% in 2015)
While this data indicates a sharp increase in just the past few years alone, the next three years project possibly an even larger emphasis towards solidifying analytical practices and departments: 36% reported that the “importance of analytics today” was extremely important today, but that number rises to 84% when the same organizations were asked how important analytics would be in three years.
Spending is Increasing
The survey also reported a dramatic increase in spending devoted to analytics. The size of the global healthcare analytics market has grown from $4-5 billion to $15 billion, just from 2015 to 2018. That rampant growth is only expected to increase, potentially ballooning to $50 billion by 2024.
This data can be reflected at the organizational level in hospital systems as well. 56 CIOs, chief CTOs, and Chief Analytics Executives were surveyed and reported that, compared to 2015, health care systems were more likely to have:
- Defined analytic strategies and visions (70% in 2018 vs. 40% in 2015)
- Dedicated analytic departments (88% in 2018 vs. 76% in 2015)
- Centralized analytic governance models (68% in 2018 vs. 58% in 2015)
While many organizations are ramping up existing analytic efforts, there are still those that lag behind. Nearly one out of every three organizations report not having an entirely integrated analytic strategy. Formulating a plan to develop an analytic infrastructure will prove to be an important first step for those organizations to stay competitive.
In-Demand Positions
For the majority of organizations that already have a firm analytical foundation, they are shifting their hiring strategy away from building analytic infrastructure to roles that can understand and work with the data. In the next three years, more organizations expect to hire:
- Data Scientists
- Visualization designers
- Data Architects
As organizational focus towards analytics continues to grow, acquiring top talent will become paramount for individual systems to compete with earlier adopters.
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