Technology Rewired: Healthcare

How has the healthcare team changed across five eras?

1. Era 1 · On-prem

   Before 2005

   0.1

   Care ran on paper charts, phone scheduling, and fax. Front desk staff, medical records clerks, and billing teams moved paper between clinicians, payers, and patients. Pagers summoned doctors, and a referral meant a fax and a phone call to confirm it arrived.

   Administrative staff were a large share of the people in any practice, because paper does not move itself.

2. Era 2 · SaaS and cloud

   2005 to 2020

   0.6

   Electronic health records digitized charts but added hours of documentation for clinicians, who became part-time data entry staff. Revenue cycle teams grew to handle coding, claims, and denials, and telehealth expanded access. Security teams appeared in hospitals, usually after an incident.

   The data was now digital, valuable, and widely shared, which is exactly what attackers want.

3. Era 3 · AI-assisted

   2020 to 2024

   1.3

   Ambient scribes drafted visit notes, and models suggested billing codes and flagged risk. Clinicians reviewed and signed every note, and many said the scribe gave them their evenings back.

   The tools lightened documentation without touching who was accountable for the record.

4. Era 4 · Agentic

   2024 onward

   1.6

   Agents now book and reschedule appointments, prepare prior authorization packets, work claim denials, and answer routine patient messages for staff review. A billing team supervises agents on denials instead of working each claim. Healthcare remains a top ransomware target, as why healthcare became ransomware's favorite target explains, so agent access to records needs tight controls.

   Destructive attacks add another angle. Stryker's wiped devices show that availability, not only theft, is the risk for medical suppliers and hospitals.

5. Era 5 · Next 5 years

   2026 to 2031

   2.5

   My bet: administrative work shrinks the most, documentation burden drops for clinicians, and clinical decision support grows as a tool rather than a decision maker. Regulation and liability keep autonomy in clinical care low, and the care team of the future includes software that must be audited like any other member.

Which healthcare software is being rewired?

No deep dives yet. The first ones are in the queue below.

Coming next

• Electronic health records
• Medical scribing
• Claims and billing
• Patient scheduling
• Telehealth