The healthcare industry is posed to demonstrate a rapid transformation and alongside retail, will increase its DX spending more than all other industries. Nowhere is this transformation more observable than in the United States, where the market is being aggressively reshaped by the shifts to value-based care, rise of consumerism and promise of personalized medicine. Recent IDC Health Insights surveys reveal more U.S. healthcare organizations (60.7%) are doing DX than are not (39.3%); and that 67.3% have already put into production, are piloting, or considering next generation security. Now that the DX era is here, the industry recognizes the link between data mastery and the ability to protect it. Therefore, identity security is especially important to ensuring safe and effective levels of DX as organizations leverage new applications, platforms, and technologies in response to mounting industry pressures.
IDC expects healthcare spend on security in the US alone to reach $1.6 billion in 2020, highlighting the stakes and challenges the industry faces in its digital evolution. As new DX use cases emerge and propel the next generation of health IT towards further advancing patient journeys and fostering even better interactions and relationships with them, the role of identity in preserving a balance between convenience and security becomes even more apparent. The right identity and security controls are critical for organizations to achieve effective data governance, prevent data misuse, accelerate process automation, and further drive DX. Leaders must ensure identity security is at the heart of all DX strategy and any efforts that leverage the ever-expanding yet largely siloed clinical, financial, and operational data assets in healthcare.
The future for healthcare is now. The industry is rapidly transforming from traditionally closed data-focused applications and padlocked systems towards more open data-driven platform plays and ever-expanding cloud-based ecosystems. The new digital future will bring forth many opportunities for silo disruption, new value creation, improved care models and more personalized journeys. However, IDC Health Insights strongly recommends that as organizations take on new DX initiatives to support strategic priorities and create new digital value chains that they do not forget the vital role of identity security in championing the preservation and augmenting the resilience of the digital identity.
