Can edge computing step in where executive initiatives fail in health care?

Reading the document, compiled last year by consulting firm by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd. and published in January, it appears that even if the industry were not beset by rapid market change and governmental whipsawing, CEOs still feel potential revenue and profit gains would be going unrealized.

The 2019 Health Care CEO Perspectives Study indicates that the leaders of large health care organizations — with revenues of $1 billion or more — are turning soon to advances in information technology and telecommunications to meet revenue expectations.

Edge computing will play an important role in 2020, according to an article published in Deloitte Insights, one of the company’s marketing outlets. The article singles out robotic process automation that is supported by artificial intelligence and cognitive intelligence.

Edge computing will play a critical enabling and ongoing-operational role.

It is already a keystone information technology development, surrounded by cloud computing, 5G telecommunications, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and the Internet of Things technologies (IoT). 

Executives hope that these technological advancements will make it possible to hold down the cost of care while delivering services that meet patient expectations.

Dell works with researchers to address digital health tech

Almost as if on cue, Ulster University in Ireland last week announced a partnership with Dell Technologies Inc. to install edge computing, IoT, and artificial intelligence in the school’s new Centre for Digital Health Care Technology. Dell also will build an augmented/virtual reality testbed in the facility.

In Deloitte’s study, health care CEOs see the maturing of these developments as a fortuitous end-run on labor, regulatory and cultural resistance to value-based payment models in health care. These models require that providers be held financially accountable for the quality of care as well as its cost.

CEO optimism about adopting the models that were evident in previous Deloitte studies has withered. It is unlikely that they will abandon efforts in this regard — the insurance industry likely will never let go of that particular bone — but edge computing and its technological siblings could be a useful new strategy to increase profit.

Should that not happen, Deloitte analysts say, creating consumer-engaging systems will provide competitive advantages potentially leading to new revenue.

Article Topics

Dell  |  edge computing  |  healthcare  |  research