Healthcare Technologies: Reducing Rather Than Reassigning Work
By Nicole Faucher,
Forbes Councils Member.
for Forbes Business CouncilCOUNCIL POST | Membership (fee-based)
Apr 02, 2025, 10:00am EDT
Nicole Faucher provides leadership for Clearway Health’s executive team, oversees strategic, operational and financial performance.
Technology in healthcare promises to streamline processes, enhance productivity, reduce costs and improve patient outcomes. However, first-generation healthcare technologies often fall short of these ambitions. While these early solutions may digitize tasks, they often fail to deliver meaningful efficiency gains. Instead, they often shift workloads from one group to another rather than eliminate unnecessary work.
In my experience as president of a specialty pharmacy services company, the most effective healthcare technologies have been those designed with human experience at the forefront—solutions that not only enhance processes but also truly reduce workloads, transforming healthcare for both providers and patients.
Reducing Versus Reassigning Workloads
Many early patient portals, telemedicine platforms and scheduling tools illustrate this problem. While they relieved some burden from healthcare providers and administrative teams, they often shifted complexity onto patients, requiring them to navigate difficult-to-use systems. According to a Notably poll of over 1,000 U.S. patients, "63% say their provider’s digital tools don't meet expectations." Developers of second-generation technologies can learn from these missteps by incorporating user feedback and human-centered design. I've found that this approach can improve adoption, usability and effectiveness, leading to real process improvements rather than just redistributing tasks.
Technologies in healthcare should eliminate unnecessary steps for both providers and patients. For instance, a prescription process that requires lengthy prior authorizations, paperwork and inconvenient pickup locations is likely to create frustration for your patients. An alternative is to create a system that automates e-prescriptions and seamlessly integrates with your partner pharmacies to remove friction and enhance patient experience. Just as customer experience drives loyalty in other industries, I've found that patients are more likely to choose healthcare providers who simplify their journey.
Assessing Existing Technology: A Necessary Gut Check
Users of first-generation tools can identify inefficiencies and gaps, inspiring better-designed solutions. Refining your scheduling platform, for example, could allow you to automate appointment selection, manage waitlists, send reminders and eliminate redundant paperwork, truly reducing workload rather than simply moving it.
Before developing or purchasing healthcare technology, ask yourself and your team, "Does this solution make work faster, easier and less burdensome?" If not, it may be time to reconsider its design and application.
Utilizing Industry Experience And Partnerships
I've found that one of the most overlooked aspects of developing successful healthcare technology is whether or not those designing the tools have direct experience in the field. Partnering developers with individuals intimately familiar with workflow challenges and patient needs can lead to technology that solves real problems rather than creating new ones. When you're evaluating or developing a healthcare technology, make sure you are working with individuals who have lived the challenges firsthand; this can lead to more practical, impactful solutions.
Healthcare is undergoing a fundamental shift from hospital-based to outpatient and home-based care. To support this transformation, healthcare and technology companies can collaborate to develop solutions that enable remote monitoring and patient management. Unlikely players are emerging as novel partners in healthcare innovation: Best Buy now helps hospitals and patients implement remote patient monitoring (RPM) technology, and Instacart has collaborated with Boston Children's Hospital to create Care Carts, a program that delivers meal plans tailored to patient needs. While these companies aren't normally associated with healthcare, their efforts provide great examples of how collaboration can streamline care delivery and improve patient outcomes.
Reducing Work For True Transformation
As healthcare continues to evolve, new technologies should be assessed by a fundamental principle: Do they reduce work, or do they simply shift it? In my experience, the most effective innovations are those powered by human experience and designed to remove inefficiencies rather than reassign tasks. As technology continues to advance, thoughtful development and evaluation can help ensure healthcare technology delivers on its promise: to truly make care more efficient, accessible and effective.
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Nicole Faucher provides leadership for Clearway Health’s executive team, oversees strategic, operational and financial performance. Read Nicole Faucher's full executive profile here.