As a young kid, I always wondered how my mother, with just a set of simple questions, could understand the root cause of my illness. She would ask about my symptoms, what I had eaten, how I was feeling—pieced together the information to diagnose and care for me even before we visited a doctor.
Years later, when I started visiting a doctor, the experience felt completely different from the care my mother had given me. It was more structured, standardized, almost mechanical—focused purely on the symptoms I described. I would explain what I was feeling, undergo a set of tests, and then wait for a diagnosis based on the results. It was methodical, yet impersonal, and lacked the warmth and intuition I had grown up with.
This contrast stayed with me for years and made me realize it wasn’t just my experience—it was a long-standing challenge in healthcare. Despite significant advancements, disconnected data, administrative burdens, clinician burnout, cybersecurity threats, and complex systems continue to hold back patient-centered care, making healthcare more process-driven than intuitive.
This realization about the gaps in healthcare became even clearer at HIMSS 2025, where I saw firsthand how Smart Hospitals are addressing these very challenges through innovative solutions.
Smart Hospitals enable data exchange with cloud-based EHRs to ensure patient records follow them when they go between specialties like general medicine to oncology or pediatrics or between functions like ER to Radiology or Labs to Admin or Finance. This ensures care continuity, expedites flow of information between practitioners, and reduces overheads in diagnostics tests, medical history collection, and treatment plans.
The following are the three key components of a smart hospital driving transformation across the healthcare ecosystem:
- Interoperability – Enable health records to follow patients, not providers
Standardized data formats combined with secure and standardized APIs facilitate the secure and efficient transfer of data across healthcare systems, ensuring seamless interoperability. FHIR standards for example maintains data integrity, and blockchain enhances authentication to ensure safe sharing of information across different healthcare providers and systems.
- Cyber Security – Zero-trust security that balances security with usability is essential
AI-driven threat detection identifies risks in real time using machine learning and behavioral analytics, while end-to-end encryption—with protocols like TLS, SSL, and AES—ensures that patient data is protected during transfer.
- AI-led Automation – Augment doctor capabilities and reduce their administrative burden
Using NLP and speech recognition, AI automates clinical documentation, aids patient triage and scheduling, streamlining workflows and improving efficiency. The goal is to reduce burnout, increase productivity, and enhance patient care.
As the event proceeded, I was eager to understand how well healthcare providers were leveraging the concept of smart hospitals or if it remains a promising yet unrealized innovation.
The following case studies presented at the event stood out as some of the most compelling examples, showcasing how smart hospital initiatives are already making a tangible impact.
- Samsung Medical Center reduced 71% of their storage space needs and were able to cut inventory costs by 85% with the help of an intelligent logistics system powered by Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) and advanced inventory management technologies.
- King Faisal Specialist Hospital reduced stays by three days and improved communication by 10% using smart technology integrated with EHRs and bedside devices.
- Hull University Teaching Hospitals saved 35 hours annually per staff member by implementing RFID tracking for over 70,000 medical assets.
These case studies demonstrate how smart hospitals are shifting from rigid, process-driven systems to adaptive, patient-centered care. This transformation reflects the essence of what makes healthcare truly human: the ability to connect the dots, recognize patterns, and respond intuitively, just like how my mother cared for me as a child.
As Schoenbaum, Vice President of Applications and Digital Health at Penn Medicine, aptly put it, the smart hospital revolution is about being “Connected, Intelligent, and Adaptive.” Her words capture the very essence of what modern healthcare must strive for: to move beyond transactional care to a system that understands, anticipates, and personalized treatment.
Standout Innovations at HIMSS
Several other innovations from healthcare tech firms caught my attention. Samsung Medical Center, for instance, showcased two remarkable robots designed to enhance patient care and operational efficiency.
One was a pediatric robot, developed to comfort young patients suffering from anxiety and depression. The other was an intelligent logistics robot, created to automate non-clinical tasks such as inventory management and supply chain processes.
Another standout exhibit was Meditech, a nationwide interoperability network designed to connect healthcare systems and improve data sharing.
While reflecting on HIMSS 2025, one crucial thing stood out. The healthcare sector is now positively using technology to tackle its most difficult challenges. However, the progress being made through automation, AI, and interoperability brings us to the crucial question: Is care becoming more efficient, or more human?
Smart hospitals are leading the charge in proving that both can be achieved. These are no longer mere data processors. By incorporating intelligent and adaptive systems, hospitals are now able to learn, recognize patterns, and respond in a more human-like manner. Rather than functioning in isolated silos, hospitals are utilizing technology to build seamless ecosystems where patient care is proactive.
The advancements featured in HIMSS 2025 included all of these changes. From proactive care AI automation, to enhanced solutions in interoperability and cybersecurity – every innovation reduces the intuitive, efficient, personalized care provided to patients. Such practices resonate very well with Trigent’s vision of enabling care organizations to streamline workflows, reduce clinician burnout, and improve the patient’s experience.
About Prashant Prasannan
Prashant Prasannan is Senior Director – Business Development at Trigent. A seasoned sales professional with 15+ years of experience in IT Services. He is responsible for evangelizing, creating sales strategies, solution and financial modelling for large infrastructure and cloud opportunities across various industries like Retail & CPG, Manufacturing, BFSI, Healthcare, Transportation and Logistics.
