Sherree Geyer

Big opportunities for efficiencies and cost savings mean cloud should become 'the archetype for small organizations' (and some big ones too).

"The voices of regulation, defensive medicine, billing and quality measure reporting have been so loud that the primary reason for documentation has been ignored," said Peter Basch, MD, of MedStar Health in Washington.

From treating service members to training clinicians, augmented and virtual reality could soon reshape patient therapy, disease research, medical education and more.

Universities are key incubators of "early-stage, high-risk, high-yield research that transfers to the private sector."

Michael Middleton, MD, credits online patient portals with helping him grow his Orlando, Florida-based pediatric practice more than three-fold in two-and-a-half years – while keeping staff cost increases at 20 percent.

Kaiser Permanente engages 45 percent of its more than 9 million members through online portals, which offer EHR access and secure physician-patient email. But not all providers are able to demonstrate such healthy numbers.

Recent repeal of the sustainable growth rate formula, which benchmarked reimbursement to the U.S. gross domestic product, could complicate things for IT systems already overburdened with federal reporting regulations.