Healthcare information technology (healthcare IT) trends focus heavily on process improvements and clinical efficiencies. Providers can use advanced, emerging technologies to deliver quality care and overcome the challenges of today’s global health crisis. Trendspotting allows healthcare organizations to stay prepared for disruption and ensures they continue to innovate every year.

From my perspective, today’s an exciting and important day for healthcare organizations around the globe. Why?

As coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread and new virus strains emerge, the public is frantically looking for answers regarding the U.S. government’s vaccine distribution plan. A sound vaccine distribution plan is especially crucial in times like these. All U.S. states, stretching from both coasts, are experiencing a vast number of COVID-related deaths and hospitalizations. The dire situation underscores the importance of having an effective, accelerated vaccine delivery process.

We all have words to describe 2020. Few of them would ring with nostalgia. COVID-19 has created pain, loss, and disruption on a scale not seen in generations. The economy has also been a casualty, as some companies have transformed and thrived while many others have stumbled and dissolved. But then, just as 2020 was bowing out, hope emerged. Three promising vaccines had produced better than expected results in clinical trials. Governments around the world rushed to approve them.

Every year, Redgate’s State of Database Monitoring Report reveals how businesses and organizations are monitoring their database estates. Are they using in-house or third-party monitoring tools? Who has access to the data? What are their biggest challenges? The thousands of responses to the survey behind the report offer the answers, and also provide an opportunity to dive deeper and examine those issues at an industry sector level.

Let citizen experiences drive your decision making In healthcare, citizen needs, expectations, and priorities can change quickly and with little warning. There’s no better example of this than the way COVID-19 immediately affected how organizations serve their customers and how healthcare providers prioritize patients, with many elective surgeries postponed.

The DIFFERENCE Foundation is a non-profit organization based in the Netherlands that is focused on designing, guiding, and funding highly quantitative research on metabolic dysfunction. The foundation considers metabolic dysfunction—which can trigger obesity, diabetes, many other diseases—the original global pandemic, as it affects almost one quarter of the global population.

Dave Widener is CTO of MyHealthMath, a provider of health plan decision support tools which simplify every aspect of open enrollment. Widener is executive leader for the company's entire technology function including R&D, strategic planning, cybersecurity, and technical product execution. Widener’s career encompasses IT management and leadership roles in the energy, life sciences, consumer products and banking sectors.