As AI continues to permeate the healthcare industry, 2026 will be a time of push and pull: well-designed and well-implemented AI scripts will pull the industry forward, while some stakeholders push back against the technology for a variety of reasons. The convergence of these trends should make for a dynamic year for payers, providers, and patients alike.
Expansion of AI for legal compliance in healthcare
Regulatory
Read More
Health IT & Digital Health-Opinion | Op-Eds | Guest Columns | Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
The Interoperability Bridge: How HIEs Secure CMS 2026 Compliance for Payers
As healthcare costs continue to increase and patients demand more from their insurance coverage, there’s rising pressure to provide higher-quality care more efficiently than ever before. The expectations for healthcare payers to achieve the Triple Aim objectives—that is, better patient experiences and improved population health at lower costs—demand that we all become more resourceful in our approach to care.
It's clear that health plans and hospital systems can’t achieve these ambitious
Read More
Why Autonomous AI Is Failing and Hybrid Models Are Winning
Good AI is not good enough.
Healthcare leaders have largely moved past the belief that fully autonomous AI can solve their hardest problems. With an estimated 95% of generative-AI initiatives never progressing beyond the pilot stage, they’ve learned that simply “adding AI” does not translate into real-world impact.
Healthcare is no exception. AI is now deeply embedded across the health system, from documentation and scheduling to risk prediction and clinical decision support, forcing the
Read More
Vulnerability Threat Management 2026: How CISA KEVs Are Reshaping Healthcare Security
Vulnerability threat management (VTM) in the healthcare space is too important to be conducted haphazardly. It’s critical to find software tools that let you prioritize vulnerabilities, spot trends instantly, and quickly filter by vulnerability type and severity.
Without such tools, managing vulnerability threats is a daunting task. Here’s what healthcare organizations are currently facing:
Scanners routinely find thousands of vulnerabilities across a typical healthcare environment –
Read More
Application Rationalization Is No Longer IT Housekeeping—It’s a Cybersecurity Survival Strategy
Anyone who has worked in healthcare IT for any amount of time knows this: we’re all carrying more applications than we can reasonably manage. Some of these systems are critical. Some are helpful. And some have simply hung around longer than they should because nobody has had the time, data, or political capital to shut them down.
For years, application rationalization was a manual, spreadsheet-driven exercise that demanded a lot of effort and delivered very little insight a leadership team
Read More
Why Pharma Marketing’s “Safe” Playbook Is Expiring in 2026
Pharma marketing has always operated within strict regulatory boundaries. What’s changing as we head into 2026 is not just the level of scrutiny, but the pace and unpredictability of it. Platform policies, data usage rules, targeting limitations, and compliance standards are evolving unevenly across channels and often without much warning.
That volatility is forcing pharma marketers to rethink how they plan, buy, and optimize media. The old playbook which was built around a
Read More
3 Ways Health Brands Can Design Digital Experiences That Users Won’t Abandon
According to new research, nearly half of users ultimately abandon the digital health or wellness technologies they adopt. This startling finding reveals a major challenge amid the industry's rapid growth.
Health and wellness technologies are everywhere — on our wrists, in our pockets, and guiding our sleep. In fact, nearly 1 in 3 Americans uses a wearable device to track their health and fitness.
Yet, engagement is breaking down just as quickly as
Read More
Practice Makes Prepared: Why Simulated Threats Outperform Traditional Training in Healthcare
Healthcare organizations are fighting a cybersecurity battle that becomes more complex every year. Phishing emails are now crafted with AI-driven precision. Text-based “smishing” scams are being increasingly used to impersonate hospital leadership or credentialing staff. Phone-based “vishing” calls can bypass filters entirely and pressure employees into disclosing credentials in real time.
These threats are not just occasional distractions; they are continuous, evolving, and
Read More
Reimagining Care Delivery: 5 Imperatives for Operationalizing Enterprise-Wide RPM
Remote patient monitoring (RPM) has become a strategic imperative for providers, payviders, and MedTech innovators looking to reimagine care delivery. The drivers are plain enough: chronic disease prevalence continues to rise, clinical teams are under pressure from staffing shortages, and readmission penalties are mounting. At the same time, patients expect care that is continuous, connected, and responsive. Data collected by RPM devices can be a gamechanger in addressing these challenges, yet
Read More
Beyond the Status Quo: 3 Core Pillars for Scaling a Private Practice in 2026
The most reliable methods of growing a private medical or dental practice haven’t changed much over the years. And yet they remain a well-kept industry secret.
The particulars might look a bit different from year to year, but the underlying concepts are the same. Creating a well-articulated brand, a strong system that encourages patient compliance, and having a leadership team whose strengths complement one another are the tried-and-true methods for
Read More
