The rise of the data-driven health professional

Lloyd B. Minor, MDDean, Stanford University School of Medicine

“Our 2020 report describes a health care sector that is undergoing seismic shifts, fueled by a maturing digital health market, new health laws that accelerate data sharing, and regulatory traction for artificial intelligence in medicine.”

The 2020 Stanford Medicine Health Trends Report identifies the Rise of the Data-Driven Physician as one of the industry’s most consequential developments—one that has significant implications for patients. 

According to this prestigious University, there are four factors in play to better appreciate this trend:

“1. An industry under transformation. In 2020, it is clear that the heath care sector is being profoundly altered by a number of trends, from technology advancements, to consumer adoption of novel health services, to policy and regulatory developments. Taken together, these trends place a high premium on new skills that fall outside the traditional domain of health care delivery.

2. Health care providers awake to new developments. The next generation of physicians is developing a broader skill set. Our research found that nearly three-quarters of all medical students and nearly half of all physicians are planning to pursue additional education in data-oriented such as advanced statistics and data science.

3. A transformation gap in health care. Currently, physicians and medical students report low levels of readiness to implement the technologies they believe have the most transformative potential for health care and their patients. While physicians recognize the benefits of many new technologies, education and training currently lag in fully preparing them for these new developments.

4. Under pressure. Even with a new skill set, tomorrow’s physicians face significant practice pressures today that are influencing their decision-making, including which specialties they choose and even whether they will remain in medical practice. Moreover, issues such as private industry getting involved in health care loom over the medical profession. How these trends play out will ultimately determine the future success of the Data-Driven Physician.”

The Stanford Medicine Health Trends Report is renowned to address and examine the most consequential developments and technologies that are changing health care delivery and this year’s introductory note conclude:

“These trends and developments present important challenges and considerations for health care stakeholders. What’s clear is that, if they can be successfully navigated, we will witness a revolution in health care, one that will bring significant innovation and data-driven insights to patient care.”

According to Arthur Olesh, editor of About Digital Health, Stanford Medicine’s 2020 Health Trends Report once again documents key trends steering the industry’s future, including a maturing digital health market, new health laws opening patient access to data, and artificial intelligence gaining regulatory traction for medical use.

This Digital Health Journalist, reports the major conclusions from this study. One of them, states that Health care providers are digital health users and see clinical value in patient-generated sources of health data. As an example, a majority of students and residents (78%) and physicians (80%) say that self-reported data from a patient’s health app would be clinically valuable in supporting their care. This group also sees clinical value in data received from sources such as a patient wearable device (79% students and residents; 83% physicians) and data from consumer genetic testing reports (63% students and residents, 65% physicians).

To read more and to download the report: here

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