When it comes to emerging technologies, not every innovation will make their mark on healthcare in the long run. For instance, CIO members of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives ranked blockchain technology as the most “overhyped” IT trend in a recent CHIME study, Healthcare IT News reports. Although blockchain technology aims to improve data integrity and advance data security, 48.2 percent of CIOs fail to see its transformative potential. Other “overhyped” trends, according to the survey, include:

• Cloud computing (23.2 percent)
• Machine learning (7.1 percent)
• Natural language processing (7.1 percent)

Instead, many healthcare organizations are focusing on trends that can make a tangible, positive impact. According to 50 percent of the CIOs surveyed, these promising innovations include Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources and application programming interfaces. Additionally, 14 percent of CIOs said their organization has launched a dedicated IT innovation center and 25 percent said their health system has formed a partnership focused on innovation with a healthcare IT startup.

—Adapted from “FHIR transformative, blockchain overhyped, CIOs say,” by Mike Miliard, Healthcare IT News, Jan. 19, 2018.