HIStalk Reader Survey Results 2025

Thanks to everyone who completed my reader survey. My readers come from all corners of healthcare and bring a wide range of experience and expectations. I’ve learned that designing by committee usually leads to something that pleases no one in the quest to please everyone, so I pay attention to individual survey responses. I earn a passing grade if readers keep coming back.

I also try not to let my enthusiasm lead me to promise more than I can deliver. Everything on the site, except for Dr. Jayne’s pieces, is put there by two people who work here less than full time. I might agree with some reader suggestions but still pass due to the reach-versus-grasp resource situation.

Some major points from the survey:

• 94% of respondents have worked in the industry for more than 10 years.
• 42% work for a vendor, 25% for a hospital or health system.
• 29% have purchasing influence of greater than $10,000 for a provider organization, while 28% have that level of authority in a vendor organization.
• 91% have a higher appreciation for companies that we write about.
• 51% have a higher interest or appreciation for companies that sponsor HIStalk.
• 96% say that reading HIStalk helped them do their job better in the past year.
• 54% based a recent strategic business decision (purchase, partnership, RFP, contract renewal, executive hire, investment, etc.) on something they read on HIStalk.

I focus on results from the “helped you do your job better” question. I would hope that the 96% of readers who say that reading HIStalk helps them do their job better will keep coming back.

I extracted some respondent comments. Italicized comments are mine.

• I love HIStalk and literally visit this website every day. I always learn something new, interesting, and relevant to healthcare IT. You do incredible work! I love Dr. Jayne and all the contributors.
• While I like that you do interviews with various folks, I don’t read them that often. I come mostly for the news and rumors and your take on what is happening (you’ve got a great perspective).
• A (very) slight facelift to modernize the formatting would be welcome. I keep thinking about how to do this with minimal disruption. I could probably get someone to spiff up the font or make minor layout changes. Ideas?
• I miss the webinars. We’ve cut back on producing webinars because it didn’t feel like we were adding enough value. Companies got pretty good at doing their own during the pandemic and potential attendees were getting tired of looking at a Zoom screen all day, which limited attendance. Some people like our YouTube channel, so maybe we will archive company webinars there or something in addition to helping promote them.
• I always value any commentary on where the political and regulatory winds seem to be shifting. Especially in current uncertain climate that’s a more important topic than ever, so more content on that would be great.
• I would love to be able to hear more about the research, successes, and pitfalls that the industry is seeing with RPM tools. Along with this, I’m also very interested in learning more about how people are deploying patient engagement tools to actually change patient actions. Less about the ability to send texts, nudges, etc. and more how are these tools being used successfully to get patients to improve their health habits (exercise, diet, med adherence, etc.)
• More opinions from industry experts (including Mr. H). I see a lot of the press releases, announcements, etc. from other sources too, but hearing the opinion/reaction from people who have been in this space a long time helps add context that I don’t really get anywhere else. What I would really like is to get the opinions of expert readers. The challenge is that people are busy and maybe not comfortable throwing their two cents out there. The biggest lesson that I’ve learned over the years is that everybody likes to consume content, but not to create it, and to rely on reader interaction is a good way to fail fast (see: HIMSS Accelerate).
• Maybe in six months would be great to interview couple of CIO/CXOs on areas of clear value from AI vs. what’s still to-be-proven. I would be really happy to do this. It’s hard to get provider executives to be interviewed. I will flag my calendar to solicit volunteers in six months and will be surprised if I get any.
• I would appreciate more coverage around FHIR and other interoperability developments and trends. You do cover it a little but I am definitely interested in finding out as much as I can on the direction of the industry as a whole in this space. I really appreciate all your recent coverage on the trends of AI in healthcare.
• More opinions from Mr. HIStalk. He knows more than everyone else. Give us more editorialization. I don’t know more than everyone else. I know a little about a lot of topics and I enjoy learning as I go, which might provide the illusion of omniscience. I have hundreds or thousands of readers who know more about any given topic than I do, but the challenge is to get them to actively participate. I also don’t want to let my experience and opinions bleed over into objective coverage of straight news.
• I like not knowing what the topics will be, it’s often something I know little to nothing about and I get educated. That’s exactly how writing HIStalk makes me feel. The best way to learn is by teaching, or in my case, by writing.
• I believe we critique sometimes more than is fair. This is not to mean that we should lessen how much we critique, but rather we should honestly praise even the losers when they make progress. Not everyone can afford Epic. If we acknowledge that, it’s still fair to call a dog a dog and even when they improve, that gap typically gets even wider, but let’s at least occasionally toss a bone to the dog when they make something better. The challenge is that not all companies and providers actively announce their news. That includes Epic, which almost never announces anything. It’s logical to ask “why don’t you ever say something negative about Epic” or “why didn’t you list our new sale,” but I only know what someone tells me.
• Would love to see a job posting area made available to subscribers. I tried that once before and it flopped, the same as reader discussion areas and online meet-ups that require reader participation. I’ll leave job boards to others. 
• It would be really helpful to interview CIOs, CMIOs, etc. of a variety of healthcare organizations to see where other folks see their greatest needs and greatest successes. Agreed, but it’s hard to get those folks to participate. I’ve been interviewed in my health system job and it requires a bunch of approvals and sometimes final review of what is published. I still can’t decide if it’s reasonable that a long-ago health system executive told leadership that we needed his approval to be interviewed because “I’ve been burned by that before.”
• Love the summarized reader comments at top and your commentary. Reader comments are the best.
• I am particularly interested in patient use of technology and don’t see much of that on HIStalk. It’s a good topic, but not one that generates a lot of news to cover outside of phone or watch apps.
• Loving the AI only section; please continue and expand this section. Thanks for keeping HIStalk objective and avoiding the political fray. I started the AI section because, as in the case when I started doing COVID updates, it gave me a reason to keep learning.
• More comprehensive reporting on sales of health IT solutions to healthcare provider organizations. The current coverage seems to miss many sales by secondary vendors in particular. I would bet that those vendors don’t announce those sales or let me know since I include everything significant that I see. It’s not like I know about it but decide to keep it to myself.
• I don’t know what I’m missing bc HIStalk is the source of news and keeps me in the loop on a broad array. I’ve been in public health, quality improvement, ACO, and now research and HIStalk covers all of that. Dr Jayne is always a good read and
• akes me wish I could take my PCP out for dinner and get her take on all of it.
• I’ve noticed that while HIStalk covers a broad range of EHR-related topics with depth and analysis, there seems to be a notable absence of any coverage that could be construed as critical of Epic Systems. Given the scrutiny that other major EHR vendors receive in your coverage, the lack of similar critique towards Epic stands out. I’m curious – does this reflect an editorial stance, a lack of sources willing to speak critically, or something else? See above. I can only report what I know. Epic is tighter with information than any vendor I can recall and their customers and even employees on Reddit don’t say much. I challenge those readers who believe I’m underreporting some to show me where they saw it elsewhere. I have no moles to report dirt.
• More direct content on useful tools for Value Based Care. While as physician, I appreciate Dr. Jayne’s perspectives, it is singular physicians perspective and at times seems to veer toward subjectivity and tilts left.
• Adding the AI newsletter was a big plus for me. Speaking of AI, as companies announce the use of various models, I would love t know their thoughts on ROI of those investments.
• Right now the information you provide is valuable and influences my day-to-day and year-to-year career. You do a great job of trying new things, ending experiments to don’t pan out, and keeping everything fresh without seeming to shake things up just for the novelty.
• More content from actual health care providers ( rather than CEO’s of some healthcare tech company). I agree, but vendor CEOs volunteer to be interviewed a lot more often that health system C-level executives. It’s the same with Readers Write articles, which mostly originate with vendor PR people and rarely from provider-employed readers.
• This may seem counter-intuitive for a news site, but any chance of scaling back production? I have fond memories of twice/week updates from HISTalk. Now there’s at least 4x/week and in 2025 I think it’s closer to 5x/week. Please don’t make enjoying your outlet a chore (one which I will stop performing). I’m open to ideas for writing shorter news updates or posting on fewer days of the week if that’s what most readers want. Or I suppose I could create separate signup forms for just the news posts versus everything else. Or, insert a keyword so you could create a mail filter rule to see only the parts you like.
• I like it as is. I always learn interesting and thought provoking info. I tend to scroll quickly past the info on newly appointed people but, as a woman in medicine and tech, even that is informative in seeing the mix of people in different roles. I also value Dr. Jayne’s columns in terms of my CMIO responsibilities. Keep up the excellent work!!!
• Love it as it is. I am much better at what I do thanks to HIStalk, both as a CEO of a healthcare IT company and a physician.