Becker's Hospital Review

10 HEALTH IT replicable across the organization, making coordinated care delivery through a range of alternative and technology-powered service models a competitive feature of Cleveland Clinic. Q: What is a lesson you've learned you'd like to share with other CIOs? CMH: I think one big message that I would emphasize is that while technology can be complicated, a very important service today's HIT professionals can provide to their colleagues in any organization is making technology a little easier to understand. To do that, we need communication. We need to engage with our colleagues regularly and oen. And we have to take responsibility for finding ways to help them understand the things about technology that are important to them. at requires real work because it can be really hard to make something look easy. Q: Looking ahead, what is one thing CIOs should focus on or look forward to in 2016? CMH: In 2016 and beyond, CIOs should be thinking about bringing new skill sets into their organizations. To me, those skills sets would include business analyst capabilities and enterprise-wide systems design. And by that, I do not mean just information system design. In the 21st century, we must reimagine a healthcare system that will be built upon capabilities and connections that simply did not exist just a few years ago. To envision a new kind of HIT-enabled system of care, we will need people who see the role of technology in a more integrated way. Historically, the employees in an IT divi- sion were only thought of as the people who managed the computers or the network or the data center. In the very near future, the peo- ple in your IT division will only spend part of their time working in the division because if they are going to be effective in helping us design better ways to deliver care, they will need to engage with their clinical colleagues directly in their clinical practices. n Are Epic and Cerner Healthcare's Apple and Android? 7 Core Thoughts By Scott Becker, JD, Publisher of Becker's Healthcare E pic and Cerner, like Apple's iOS and Google's Android, hold the largest market shares in their industry. The Apple iOS and Google Android and their products, branding and ease of use have become so successful that they have few, if any, viable compet- itors among smartphone manufacturers. Other organizations largely believe they can't compete in the phone operating system business. Epic and Cerner are attempting to put themselves in a similar position for large health system EHRs. Here are seven thoughts on the positions, similarities and differences between Apple and Android in the smartphone industry and Epic and Cerner in healthcare. 1. Developing a dominant market position. Apple and Android have grown to be so dominant in the phone operating system busi- ness that none of their competitors currently stand much chance of gaining a significant foothold in the core market. Nearly 95 percent of mobile phones in the U.S. use Apple's iOS or Google's Android operating systems. Apple and Android were persistent in doubling down on improvements to make their technology so user-friendly that buying phones that don't run on their systems became unattractive for most buyers. 2. Creating a high barrier for entry and edging out competition. As Apple and Android became more attuned to what consumers wanted and made products to match those demands, their growth and market share results skyrocketed. This enabled them to continual- ly refine their operating systems. This cycle cemented the companies' positions and created a higher barrier for entry than had ever existed previously in the mobile phone market. Competitors like Blackberry resolved to build phones for the Android operating system rather than continuing to solely rely on their own operating systems. Addi- tionally, as Apple's iOS and the Google-developed Android system became the standard, more developers introduced applications and programs built to work on these systems. This has created a mar- ket space where niche industries have grown alongside Apple and Android and are invested in the success of Apple and Android. This serves to further solidify the position of Apple and Android. 3. Similar strategies at play in healthcare's EHR market. As Epic and Cerner gain more ground in the large-size hospital and health system market, the better equipped they become to serve those systems. As their reach expands, it becomes harder and less attractive for the larg- est and most influential health systems to not use Epic or Cerner's EHR. Further, the switching costs in EHR are generally huge. As we talk with the largest systems making changes in their choice of EHR, it becomes increasingly clear that they are narrowing their choices. In the past few years, the two health IT titans have begun to cement certain economies

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