Best Practice for Laboratories to Secure Value From Digital Transformation Vol.1

A few weeks ago, I introduced XiFin’s best practices of digital transformation for laboratories blog series. I put forward the concept that the digital transformation wave is pushing your laboratory and profession to their limits. 70% of healthcare executives surveyed by SAP and Oxford Economics believe that the latest technologies are essential to growth, competitive advantage, and customer experience. The key to securing value from digital transformation is to approach it from a best practice perspective.  As a reminder, securing value from digital transformation initiatives is not about enhancing and supporting traditional methods through incremental changes. It is about taking on digital transformation initiatives that will enable innovation and leap change in your laboratory.

XiFin is dedicated to unleashing the value of diagnostics. Based on extensive work and 20 years of expertise and leadership in the diagnostics market, XiFin has developed five best practices to help you navigate the digital transformation landscape and to help you obtain the most healthcare value from your laboratory IT investments.  Just to be clear #1 is not more important than #3 or #5. All five need to be considered and balanced as you move forward with your digital transformation initiative. But for the purposes of the blog series, we numbered them.

Take a look at the graphic to your right and you will see that the first best practice is based around the concept of “needs identification and requirements definition.” As you consider the digital transformation of your lab, think about the driver(s), the needs and the requirements.

Depending on how you answer these questions you may be limiting the value of your digital transformation initiative before you even get started.

Truthfully, there are some mixed messages out there. Ponder the whole agile movement. It advocates adaptive planning and sprinting to deliver technology solutions faster and in smaller increments. Some healthcare IT professionals have extended an agile development approach to the “needs identification and requirements definition” step of a digital transformation initiative. Based on our experience, that may impact the value you secure.

I am a huge fan of the agile movement when it comes to development. But it should not apply to the needs identification and requirements of a digital transformation initiative. It should apply to how the digital transformation initiative is delivered.

As you scope out your healthcare digital transformation vision, take theses three actions:

1. Ensure that your digital transformation initiative is driven by a desire to gain a strategic or competitive advantage rather than a mandate or specific problem. Define the strategic or competitive drivers so that they are clear to the various stakeholders.
    
2. Complete a needs analysis that is broad and sophisticated. More specifically, your needs analysis should encompass a broad community of stakeholders such as patients, healthcare team members, physicians, leadership, administrative team members, payors, partners and end users. As well, think about stakeholders that may not be users but could benefit from the outcomes or data generated by the process, system or solution.
    
3. Your requirements definition should be shaped by the strategic or competitive advantage drivers and the broad needs analysis. Complete your requirements definition across the stakeholders and then ensure those defined requirements align with strategic decision makers and cross-functionally. Requirements definition should not be limited to specific requirements of departments, teams, and functions.

By using the needs assessment and requirements definition best practice, you will have a vision for your digital transformation initiative. That vision will be driven by strategic and competitive intent. The needs to make that vision come to life will incorporate all of the stakeholders that are impacted by or can benefit from the process, system or solution. The requirements that address the needs and deliver on the strategic and competitive intent will be well defined and understood by decision makers. 

This is the first best practice from our Digital Transformation Best Practices for Laboratories blog series. Missed the introduction? Read it here. Follow our blog to be notified when the next one is posted.

We hope these best practices will help you get the best value from your healthcare IT dollars to achieve your diagnostic, clinical and financial objectives. Don’t want to wait? Reach out to us for an in-depth and customized digital transformation assessment of your laboratory.