BridgeHead Software today released the full results from its second-annual Healthcare Data Management (HDM) survey which determined that healthcare IT leaders around the world consider disaster recovery and business continuity their most pressing data management need. Of the survey responders, 65% said their data volumes had increased over the previous year, yet only 26% said they had “robust, tried-and-tested” disaster recovery plans in place.

As BridgeHead reported in February, disaster recovery was voted the top healthcare IT investment priority for the second year in a row. The survey also confirmed that hospitals want more control over medical image data generated by Picture Archive and Communication Systems (PACS).

Jim Beagle, CEO of BridgeHead Software, said, “In the face of unstoppable data growth, it is becoming a serious challenge for hospitals to store and protect patient data while also making it available for clinicians in a timely manner at the point of care. Results from this year’s Healthcare Data Management survey indicate that hospitals are still grappling with many of the same IT challenges they faced last year, particularly with regards to business continuity and disaster recovery.”

To combat these and other challenges, many hospitals are actively investing in data management technologies that give them more control over their information—a practice that has positive effects for several important areas of healthcare IT including: interoperability, data access, IT efficiency, reducing IT costs, energy efficiency and disaster recovery.

Other key findings from the survey:

65% said data volumes had increased over the previous year, 30% did not know how much data volumes had changed, and 5% said data volumes had decreased or stayed the same

PACS applications were cited as the number-one reason for healthcare data growth (63%), followed by files held in the electronic health record (54%) and scanned documents such as proof of insurance (51%)

90% said their facilities had a plan to go at least partially paperless with their electronic patient records

32% said they planned to move to a new PACS within the next 5 years

64% said their organisations had some kind of disaster recovery strategy in place, but the majority (38%) had never been tested

35% said their facilities did not have a plan to reduce data centre carbon emissions

45% said their facilities were planning a major storage upgrade (1 TB or more) in the next year.