Hospitals aren’t usually in the business of selling technology tools. But that’s changing thanks to a collision of financial pressures and an explosion of new technology that could both improve patients’ health and ease the burden of administrative tasks on limited staff.
At the J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference, an exclusive, invitation-only event for investors, several influential health systems like Mayo Clinic and Mass General Brigham doubled down on new revenue streams including advising companies building artificial intelligence tools or licensing out custom built products as they brace for a tough 2024.
Selling tech isn’t entirely new: a subset of hospitals and academic centers have been licensing out risk models and health record tools for decades. But now, a “perfect storm” of shrinking profit margins and philanthropic dollars, workforce shortages and rising labor costs is driving more hospitals to explore selling new technology they have built, like scheduling or clinical note summary tools, more than they have before, according to Dana Rollison, chief data officer at Moffitt Cancer Center.