By nature, health systems are compelled to pursue adoption of clinical innovations to improve care delivery and health outcomes. But the resource-intensive nature of adopting clinical innovations means that health systems can’t pursue everything. Therefore, many are taking a measured approach towards investment, with a focus on alignment with strategic goals. Based on a 2023 survey of 30 unique Leading Health System executives involved in clinical innovation strategy and decision making we learned the following insights:

The motivators driving innovation are primarily financial, with 73% of leaders saying growing market share is their most important strategic motivator. Therefore, health systems will likely continue to focus on innovations such as advanced minimally invasive surgery, advanced immunotherapy, and genetic testing as they support broader strategies for growing market share and revenue (e.g., capturing new patients, service line growth).

Service line growth decisions are guiding investment strategy. Leaders reported that they are prioritizing cardiovascular, oncology, and neurology service lines. Therefore, their investment decisions are tied to innovations supporting these service lines like gene therapy, genomic testing, and advanced immunotherapy. All of these investments are important as these service lines are seeing patients needing higher acuity care compared to five years ago. To keep cost-per-case under control, many are trying to pursue innovations focused on earlier detection and preventative care.

There is little desire to invest in unproven innovations—except AI. Leaders indicated the highest confidence in investing in the most broadly adopted innovations (e.g., advanced minimally invasive surgery), because of their clear use cases, ability to enable growth strategies, and fewer risks. Clinical applications of AI were a notable exception. AI’s substantial use cases and potential to contain costs has leaders confident in its impact despite its nascent use in healthcare delivery. Conversely, 70% of clinical leaders on average stated they were “neutral” or only “somewhat convinced” about the overall impact of less commonly adopted innovations like 3D printing of medical supplies/devices, gene therapy and genome sequencing.