As healthcare delivery becomes increasingly digital, forward-looking organizations are investing in technology not just to keep up, but to lead. In fact, a recent Deloitte survey found that one in three health system executives are making technology investment a top priority for 2025 — underscoring the industry’s pivot toward scalable, future-ready solutions.
IT infrastructure is a foundational and essential piece of the innovation puzzle. To learn more about challenges and opportunities in modernizing these systems, Becker’s Healthcare spoke with Marcus Perez, president of Altera Digital Health.
Question: Many healthcare organizations are looking to modernize their IT infrastructure, yet interoperability and data fragmentation remain major roadblocks. What are the biggest challenges health IT leaders face in achieving a truly connected ecosystem, and how can they address them?
Marcus Perez: Sharing data was the original idea behind EHRs. Getting the right information in the right people’s hands at the right time to make the right decisions is still the objective. However, if you take a step back and ask if anyone is doing that well, the answer is no. Interoperability continues to be the mantra for many, yet it doesn’t exist.
When you look at data sharing, you must think about how to move and store information, comply with HIPAA and more. It quickly becomes cumbersome. So, many organizations revert to what is easy logistically. At Altera, we’re thinking differently about how to make this a reality, without creating financial burdens or increased effort.
Q: AI and automation continue to dominate health IT conversations, with growing interest in how these tools can improve clinical workflows and reduce clinician burnout. How do you see AI shaping the future of EHRs, and what should leaders prioritize when considering AI-driven solutions?
MP: You need great data to generate the types of insights that support great decisions. We believe the next area where we’ll see a significant shift in healthcare is aggregating and harmonizing data from any source, then using machine learning and predictive analytics to give guidance.
In the AI arena, a good first step is identifying burdensome manual processes that can be automated. Considerable manual activity still exists in healthcare. If you can remove the human component from these manual tasks, you will see massive gains in efficiency and speed. Unfortunately, few people want to talk about this because it’s not sexy.
To address clinician burden, many organizations are experimenting with ambient listening and machine learning. But many solutions just dump patient conversation data into an EHR note that must be parsed by clinicians. To reduce burnout, technology needs to do more than just listen; it must handle documentation in a smart way. The end goal should be automatic creation of order sets, prescriptions and clinical notes. All that clinicians should need to do is review the information and click ‘OK.’
To transform the way we work with AI, we must understand the specific problems that need to be solved. Real change is made through metrics. If your organization has clinician burnout, for example, what tools can you implement and what metrics can you track to alleviate it?
Q: Cybersecurity threats are escalating, requiring healthcare leaders to think beyond traditional defenses. How should hospitals and health systems rethink their cybersecurity strategies to strengthen resilience? What innovative approaches are emerging to protect patient data?
MP: Constant cybersecurity threats characterize today’s healthcare environment. Who you partner with is the most important consideration. The majority of Altera’s development work and partnerships, for example, are with Microsoft, which invests over $2 billion a year in cybersecurity protections. A Microsoft-hosted environment is much more secure than a hospital or health system storing data on-premises. All it takes is someone with keys to your server room to hack the system.
Altera is also focused on containerized product architectures. One of the biggest EHR challenges is that once a bad actor gains access, they can move around freely with catastrophic results. With a containerized architecture, the system can be locked down to minimize exposure.
Q: We’ve seen a shift toward more cloud-based EHR solutions, as health systems seek greater scalability and flexibility. What are some of the key advantages — and potential challenges — of this transition? How is Altera supporting health systems in their cloud migration journey?
MP: I encourage any health system to adopt a cloud strategy from a cybersecurity and an efficiency perspective. Altera has built an EHR called Paragon Denali that is purely hosted in a Microsoft environment and built for the cloud. Healthcare organizations enjoy real-time access to data, fast upgrades and reduced down times — all without the burden and cost of IT infrastructure maintenance work.
At Altera, we measure success by our clients’ outcomes. We are ready to get in the boat with customers and share risk with them. Our partnerships mean that if we deliver, there is upside — and if we don’t, we don’t see a gain. This model is rarely seen in healthcare, but it’s one that the industry needs.
