The health care industry is experiencing perhaps its most rapid pace of innovation ever. Understandably, this shift has been driven in part by technology, with new innovations presenting tantalizing value for health care. Yet the time has also come to shift the emphasis from providers and doctors to patients and their data.

The U.S. health care community converged at the 2018 HIMSS conference in Las Vegas earlier this month, where health care leaders, vendors and regulators confronted the challenges of riding the currents of innovation while consistently and strategically prioritizing patients and providing them with greater knowledge and more control of their health care.

Amid a changing landscape marked by consolidation and disruption in the health care industry, organizations must seamlessly modernize, streamline and consolidate their IT systems to guarantee uninterrupted operations. As health care businesses continue to make strategic acquisitions and vertical integrations, there is a greater need for smooth transitions of IT operations across those integrations while maintaining reliable and transparent services to those on the front lines of care delivery.

Inefficiencies, while simply written off as waste or revenue loss in other industries, can have fatal consequences in health care. According to a 2016 John Hopkins study, medical error and health care inefficiencies over 250,000 deaths a year in the U.S., the third most frequent cause of death after heart disease and cancer. A systemic shift must happen.

Many organizations across the spectrum of care — from insurance payers to hospitals — are targeting technology as an operational area ripe with potential efficiency gains. Many have elected to modernize their legacy technology by virtualizing their enterprise and network infrastructure. Software-based infrastructure establishes an agile and secure IT foundation without cannibalizing human resources or interrupting the delivery of patient care.

Virtualized, modernized infrastructure enables a primary focus on patients by making other technological innovations available to health care leaders. Connected medical devices in the Internet of Things are enhancing the functional delivery of care, while digital clinical workspaces are transforming the practical delivery of care. Electronic health records (which have been used long enough that they could be considered legacy technology) keep everyone — from insurance companies to doctors to patients — in the loop, and they’re especially critical for serving high-risk patients or those with chronic conditions.

Conversely, proper cybersecurity hygiene and least-privilege protocols can capably protect sensitive health data from being compromised by parties who have no business accessing it. Almost one-quarter of all data breaches in the U.S. occur in the health care sector. Patients want to trust the organizations they choose for their health care needs.

We have the means to fight back against security threats. Today, patients and care providers alike can securely access medical information anytime, anywhere, on any device. It may seem like technology is the dynamic catalyst for all this innovation, but successful use cases of these tech solutions are largely driven by sound strategic investment by health care organizations that enhance enterprise-wide agility, optimize care delivery, build brand trust by demonstrating a commitment to information security and put them in a position to deliver quality treatment while ensuring patient privacy.