Study: CIOs, IT vendors miles apart

A new study suggests that healthcare CIOs and software marketing executives are even father apart in their understanding of one another than you might think. The study, which surveyed 100 IT professionals and 100 vendor representatives, found that while a majority of vendors believe price is among the top factors in making a technology purchasing decision, only 44 percent of CIOs agreed. While 77 percent of CIOs considered functionality to be the most important criteria, vendors said that they felt functionality would rank equally with price as a key factor in such decisions, rating each at 57 percent.

Nor do the misunderstandings stop there. While 52 percent of vendor marketing chiefs said IT directors and managers were among the two most influential players in making IT purchases, and 31 named doctors and nurses, only 40 of CIOs said IT directors were key influencers, and a mere 17 percent said clinicians had that level of influence.

However, it appears that the two constituencies agree on one thing, the top challenges facing CIOs--communicating the business value of health IT investment to others within their organization, justifying their budget, building a business case for IT and communicating the impact of health IT on patient care.

To get more statistics from the study:
- read this Digital HealthCare & Productivity piece