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Healthcare worldwide is under mounting pressure. Demand for care continues to rise, straining already limited resources, while healthcare professionals face burnout and patients struggle with access. The BMJ Future Health Commission Report 2025 highlights how digital transformation could ease these pressures by making healthcare more efficient, sustainable, and patient-centered—but only if trust, interoperability, and training are addressed.
For Oman, preparing to host OHEC 2025, these insights are critical. As the Sultanate aligns with Oman Vision 2040 and seeks to modernise healthcare infrastructure, digital health is poised to play a transformative role. But successful adoption will depend on overcoming barriers identified in the report.
Digital solutions—from electronic health records (EHRs) to telemedicine, mobile health apps, predictive analytics, and wearable devices—are reshaping care delivery. According to the report, more than 80% of healthcare professionals surveyed globally believe digital technology has improved patient data accessibility and care delivery in recent years.
Yet progress is uneven. While most professionals support digital innovation, nearly half say it has not reduced administrative burden or clinical workload. Worse, poorly implemented EHR systems have sometimes undermined trust, creating inefficiencies instead of streamlining care.
This tension is highly relevant for Oman. As the Ministry of Health continues to invest in e-health strategies and smart hospital systems, ensuring usability and clinician buy-in will be key to unlocking digital healthcare’s full potential.
One of the biggest barriers highlighted in the report is poor interoperability—the inability of systems to seamlessly exchange and use data. Clinicians often face the frustration of logging into multiple platforms for the same patient, or being unable to access records from nearby hospitals. This fragmentation risks patient safety, adds to staff workload, and erodes trust in technology.
Globally, regulatory progress is being made. Europe’s new Health Data Space regulation, for example, mandates interoperability standards for EHR vendors. For Oman, this offers a lesson: early adoption of standards and protocols can help avoid costly delays and ensure digital systems in hospitals, clinics, and primary care centers work together as one ecosystem.
The report stresses that technology adoption is as much about people as it is about systems. Only half of surveyed healthcare professionals felt they had received sufficient training to use digital tools effectively.
Without investment in training, promising innovations risk underperformance.
Moreover, nearly 61% of clinicians reported being under-involved in decisions about digital health investments. The lack of frontline input often results in systems that feel unintuitive and poorly aligned with real-world workflows.
For Oman, this is an opportunity. By engaging clinicians, nurses, and allied health professionals early in the design and rollout of digital platforms, and by providing ongoing training, healthcare providers can ensure smoother adoption. OHEC 2025 can serve as a forum to showcase best practices in user-centered technology adoption.
Digitalisation brings new risks alongside benefits. Nearly half of respondents in the study reported experiencing patient safety concerns due to digital systems. Data quality issues—such as incomplete or incorrect patient information—can compromise care. Additionally, cybersecurity has rapidly become a critical threat. In 2024, healthcare was the third most targeted industry for cyber-attacks globally, with ransomware incidents disrupting hospitals and even destroying vital lab data.
For Oman’s growing healthcare ecosystem, robust governance, data security, and cyber resilience must accompany digital transformation strategies. Policies ensuring accuracy, privacy, and protection of patient data will be crucial for public confidence.
The BMJ Commission concludes that building trust in healthcare’s digital future requires:
Improving EHR functionality and interoperability to eliminate silos.
Investing in long-term training so staff can fully benefit from new tools.
Involving clinicians in decision-making, ensuring technologies fit real clinical needs.
Managing data risks and cybersecurity to protect patients and institutions.
These lessons resonate with Oman’s ambitions. By embedding them into national health strategies, Oman can position itself not only as a regional leader in digital health but also as a global example of how technology, when trusted and well-implemented, can drive sustainable healthcare transformation.
At OHEC 2025, policymakers, technology providers, and healthcare leaders will convene to address exactly these challenges. The event offers a platform to explore how Oman can integrate global best practices while tailoring solutions to its unique healthcare needs.
As the report reminds us, digital healthcare is not just about adopting technology—it is about building trust in technology. For Oman, this means designing systems that empower healthcare professionals, protect patients, and deliver on the promise of smarter, more accessible care.
Source: BMJ Future Health Commission Report.pdf
