Seven Health Care Technologies to Watch

1. Electronic Medical Records: More advanced EMR applications provide a higher level of integration and far more sophisticated data sharing.

2. Mobility: Smartphones and tablets are on their way to becoming mainstream, standard tools

3. Cloud computing: Organizations are using clouds to store and share data and documents

4. Telemedicine: Unified networks, higher bandwidth and better software are making it possible to provide medical services across distances—and to remote areas

5. Analytics: Advances in analytics—particularly predictive analytics—allow organizations to understand risks and outcomes in new and useful ways.

6. Desktop virtualization: A growing number of facilities are turning to desktop virtualization to manage resources more effectively and securely

7. Real-time location services: A typical health care organization procures 20 percent more equipment than it needs, according to consulting firm Axendia. WiFi and radio-frequency identification tracking systems dramatically lower costs.