Originally posted on Becker's Healthcare.
Innovation isn’t just about the next big tech breakthrough; it’s about building the strength to support it. As initiatives like AI move from experimental to essential across healthcare, leaders should be asking the right question: Are we truly ready for scalable, transformative innovation?
A recent survey by Modern Healthcare and Nordic reveals both industry progress and opportunity across critical IT foundations like governance, infrastructure, data, and training. Investing in these foundations is important but success also requires five reinforcing cornerstones that support foundational efforts for enterprise-wide impact: strategy, cybersecurity, integration and interoperability, cultural commitment, and change management.
Laying a robust groundwork is critical
Preparing for a highly innovative implementation like AI is similar to preparing for any innovation across the health IT landscape. AI is new and exciting, but the connecting elements for the enterprise remain the same. Without a strong foundation, health IT initiatives often fail to deliver financial, operational, and clinical value, leading to wasted investments, inefficiencies, resistance from providers, and potentially poor outcomes for patients.
To move from potential to progress, healthcare organizations need foundational strength reinforced by coordinated IT efforts that span departments and priorities. That’s where these five cornerstones work in sync to turn readiness into resilience and innovation into lasting impact.
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Lead with vision through proactive IT strategy
A proactive IT strategy is a forward-looking plan that aligns technology investments with strategic goals. Health IT should not only support operations and efforts to improve operations, but also be woven into your strategic objectives as ways to achieve those objectives. Strategic planning ensures that IT investments are coordinated across departments, not siloed, which enables data-driven investments in IT, and long-term value creation. -
Secure to scale: Build trust that leads to innovation
A strong cybersecurity strategy protects data and systems, creating a safe foundation for adopting new technologies. Health IT innovation depends on trust, and trust starts with secure systems. When sensitive data is protected and digital infrastructure is resilient, teams can shift their focus from reacting to risks to delivering meaningful innovation. -
Connect with purpose: Unlock tech stack value
Systems must do more than coexist, they need to integrate and interoperate. Integration connects different platforms, tools, and workflows so they function as a unified system. Interoperability ensures those systems can exchange and interpret data in consistent, meaningful ways. Together, they enable well-organized data to flow freely and accurately across the organization, driving faster decision-making, better care coordination, and more informed AI tools. -
Align and grow: Accountability for long-term success
A strong culture of commitment means that everyone, from leadership to frontline teams, shares responsibility for making technology decisions that support the organization’s goals. This kind of cultural alignment ensures that priorities stay clear, accountability is embedded, and inefficiencies that lead to wasted investments are avoided. Fostering this mindset enables more strategic use of technology and encourages thoughtful evaluation of emerging tools like AI. By cultivating a culture where decision-making is transparent, inclusive, and tied to long-term impact, organizations can stay aligned and grow with confidence. -
Empower adoption: Turn stakeholders into champions
The best technology will fail without effective change management: a clear plan is needed for adoption and transition supported by stakeholder buy-in. Engaging stakeholders early and managing change proactively is essential for long-term success. This involves clear communication, role-based training, leadership engagement and buy-in, and consistent reinforcement of strategic value. When change is framed as shared progress rather than disruption, teams are far more likely to embrace and sustain it.
Prioritizing for future success
Strong foundations are essential for implementing health IT like AI. But to truly scale innovation, organizations also need the five cornerstones: strategy, cybersecurity, interoperability and integration, cultural commitment, and change management. These areas help strengthen what’s already in place and ensure new technologies actually deliver value. While these cornerstones are critical, they’re not exhaustive. Success also depends on having the right team in place, equipped to lead, support, and sustain progress. With the right support around these areas, hospitals can make lasting improvements for patients, providers, and operations.
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