Upgrading IT services top priority of healthcare leaders: survey

Better data leads to improved care, respondents say.

Improving IT and data operations is the key business priority of more than one in two healthcare business leaders in the Asia-Pacific region, a survey revealed.

The study, conducted by Microsoft in partnership with IDC Asia/Pacific, showed that over half of 159 business leaders polled ranked boosting IT services as their top priority, followed by improving patient care and support as well as admission and patient records management.

"While most healthcare organisations realise the need to digitally transform, they also need to address immediate business concerns. These areas mark a shift of healthcare organisations in the region in improving operational processes as a priority to deliver higher quality care services," said Kevin Wo, Managing Director, Microsoft Singapore.

The healthcare sector faces immense pressures to deliver quality care services for patients, but needs to do so in a secure and compliant manner. According the Microsoft – IDC Asia/Pacific Study, information security and data privacy is the number one business concern identified amongst leaders in the healthcare sector today.

"Trust is essential for any organisation today, and especially so for healthcare organisations due to the volume of confidential data collected and processed. Our services are built with security and privacy in mind, and our cloud services are one of the most certified offerings available in market today," said Wo.