It's been a busy year. As health systems continue to grapple with the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis, we look back on the tech lessons learned these past many months – with cautious optimism for a better year ahead.

At few times in recent memory has the resolve of hospitals and health systems across the U.S. – and the wherewithal of the information systems and digital data that keep them running – been put to the test quite like it was in 2020.

An all-hands-on-deck push from heroic physicians and nurses to save the lives of as many COVID-19 inpatients as possible. A massive nationwide scale-up of telehealth and remote patient monitoring unlike anything yet seen. A system-wide shift to remote work and virtual, cloud-enabled collaboration. Ramped up ransomware incursions from aggressively opportunistic cyber crooks. Ongoing interoperability challenges as testing sites, labs, providers, payers and public health agencies tried to manage fast-moving waves of new patient data. Major new federal rulemakings meant to enable more seamless data exchange in the future.

But through it all, the resilience, persistence and innovation have been remarkable as health systems continue the digital transformations they'd embarked on in the "beforetimes" – and redoubled their efforts to accelerate them in earnest in response to this public health emergency.

See Also

• Major Moves with COVID-19 Vaccines
• Clinical Education During COVID-19
• Best Practices When Outsourcing Revenue Cycle Management
• 5 Steps for Interoperability Excellence for Healthcare Providers
• How to Improve Patient Engagement With Referral Data