Survey: Global IT decision-makers chart digital health care

A recent survey by SOTI has shown that 46% of Australian IT decision-makers are using AI to plan the best course of treatment for patients. This finding is from SOTI’s 2025 healthcare report, which surveyed 1750 IT decision-makers across 11 countries with the aim to uncover key insights into the evolving digital healthcare landscape.

The continued rise of AI

Titled ‘Healthcare’s digital dilemma: calculated risks and hidden challenges exposed’, the report’s findings suggest that AI has become more than just an admin support tool. Of those surveyed, the report reveals that 64% of IT decision-makers who use AI do so to process and analyse medical data, 58% to update patient records and 42% to diagnose medical conditions.

A comparison of the current report with SOTI’s 2024 findings also highlights an increase in uptake of AI by healthcare organisations — from 70% in 2024 to 93% in 2025. Considering Australian responses in particular, comparison between the two reports offers insight into how AI is being leveraged across various facets of health care:

In which of the following ways does your organisation currently use AI in patient care? (Asked to those using AI in patient care)	AU	AU
	2025	2024
To process and/or analyse medical data	64%	65%
To update patient records	58%	58%
To plan the best course of treatment	46%	39%
To personalise treatments	42%	37%
To fulfil other administrative purposes	40%	18%
To diagnose conditions	42%	30%

However, SOTI believes the findings of this survey also show that the promise of innovation is being slowed by legacy IT systems that raise serious concerns around security, efficiency and interoperability — with 99% of healthcare organisations reported to still use legacy technology.

The challenge of legacy systems

For the survey, core markets included 200 respondents in the US and the UK, and 150 respondents in Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy and Spain. Globally, the survey revealed that 96% of IT leaders reported challenges with legacy systems, IoT and telehealth, with close to three-quarters (77%) of organisations using unintegrated, outdated systems for IoT and telehealth medical devices.

This impacts interoperability, SOTI said, such as accessing real-time patient data all in one place and increasing security vulnerabilities. Globally, 59% of organisations reported facing downtime/tech issues and 45% said legacy systems made networks vulnerable to attack. In contrast, SOTI said that “Australia reported significantly more concerning results”, with 66% challenged by downtime and 53% more vulnerable due to legacy systems.

“In Australia, over half of healthcare organisations say legacy systems are making their networks more vulnerable to attack and IT teams are spending too much time reacting to small IT issues,” said Michael Dyson, VP of Sales, APAC at SOTI.

“Without the ability to remotely manage and troubleshoot devices, day-to-day operations are suffering. Enterprise mobility management equips healthcare providers with the visibility and control needed to improve security, reduce downtime, fix device issues remotely as well as deliver safer, more efficient care.

“AI is already playing a key role in improving how healthcare organisations digitalise patient care,” Dyson added. “But without modern, secure infrastructure to support this momentum, many healthcare providers risk falling short of AI’s full potential. Legacy systems continue to introduce friction where there should be progress.”

The survey also revealed that almost all Australian IT decision-makers (99%) indicated that their organisations utilise some form of connected devices or telehealth solutions — telehealth, SOTI said, that has the potential to support patients remotely, increase accessibility, save time and enhance communication.

The potential of EMM solutions

SOTI believes the 2025 survey findings show that healthcare organisations “are heading in the right direction. But to fully capitalise on emerging technology, they need to refocus and reallocate time and resources to upgrade their IT infrastructure”.

Globally, the survey showed that IT decision-makers face several obstacles in device management due to legacy technology. In Australia, a notable proportion of IT staff reported that they cannot support devices remotely/get detailed information on device issues (43%) and spend too much time fixing issues (39%).

The survey also found that Australia (43%), the UK (47%) and Canada (46%) had the most issues with deploying and managing new devices/printers. SOTI believes this is where the current mobile device management (MDM) solutions in place are failing, and the enhanced enterprise mobility management (EMM) solutions are making “a groundbreaking impact”.

Data security also emerged as a key concern, ranked as the top concern for 35% of healthcare organisations — with 18% saying that managing the security of shared devices was their top challenge. This means that, together, 53% reported a security-related issue as their top IT concern.

“Managing shared device security remains a leading IT issue. Basic MDMs no longer meet the demands of today’s complex digital environment,” said Stephanie Lopinski, VP of Global Marketing at SOTI. “With more devices, users and field workers, healthcare must adopt EMM solutions for centralised deployment, security and management. Only then can IT leaders ensure scalable, secure and compliant operations.”

SOTI’s report is available here.

Image credit: iStock.com/gorodenkoff