Quick summary:
- Effective healthcare technology should align with clinician workflows, not just add more features—tools must reduce burden and improve patient outcomes.
- Feature overload is often fear-driven, leading to unnecessary alerts and inefficiency; instead, solutions should be based on real problems and situational awareness.
- Strong infrastructure is essential, as reliable networks and seamless integration form the foundation for successful clinical tools.
- User-centered design and product integrity are key, ensuring solutions are built with direct clinician input and only include features that truly add value.
- AI and data tools hold promise but must be thoughtfully integrated to support—not replace—clinicians, relying on high-quality data and real-world testing to be effective.
Modern medicine now relies heavily on healthcare technology. Yet, all too often, these technologies become overwhelming instead of empowering, complicating clinician workflows rather than streamlining them. Steve Tyler, a veteran healthcare technology executive, has spent over two decades leading product and innovation efforts at companies like Extension Healthcare, Vocera, and TigerConnect. He has played a key role in shaping clinical communication and workflow technologies that aim to reduce clinician burden and improve care delivery.
According to Tyler, truly impactful healthcare technology doesn’t focus on adding more features; it focuses on aligning with how clinicians work. The goal is to develop solutions that strengthen patient outcomes while reducing the workload for care teams. In healthcare, information overload isn’t just a nuisance; it’s a safety hazard. Imagine a nurse inundated with constant alerts, each one demanding immediate attention. This scenario isn’t hypothetical; it’s very much real.
The Feature Trap: When Wants Get Mistaken for Needs
Tyler recalls visiting a hospital overwhelmed by excessive notifications: “Any time any patient was getting out of the bed, everybody on the unit at the same time was all being told about this event,” he says. Tyler recognized this as a common pitfall in healthcare technology: clinicians often request certain features out of fear or anxiety about missing critical patient events, rather than through an evidence-based understanding of their needs.
As he states, “I have a fear that I might miss something if you don’t tell me everything that is occurring. It’s a fear-based reaction as opposed to using a scientific process to use situational awareness to understand whether that’s going to be helpful or not.”
That’s why Tyler cautions product teams not to take feature requests at face value. “It’s so easy for us to focus on solutions and not have a good understanding of the problem,” he says. By digging deeper into the real concerns driving those requests, teams can move beyond surface-level fixes and toward smarter, more targeted solutions.
His insight led to a fundamental shift in clinical communication strategies. Instead of delivering every notification to every caregiver, Tyler advocated for contextual or situational awareness-based communication. This targeted method ensures alerts reach only the most relevant caregiver at precisely the right time, significantly reducing alert fatigue and enhancing patient safety and clinical responsiveness.
Building Healthcare Success on a Reliable Foundation
Reliable infrastructure forms the critical foundation for effective clinical tools. Tyler observed this firsthand through his partnership with Cisco, whose strong communication systems became integral to delivering successful healthcare solutions. “They provided the infrastructure, and we provided the data, and we went to market together,” Tyler says.
In healthcare, foundational elements such as network reliability, device compatibility, and seamless system integration ultimately determine whether technology strengthens clinical workflow or introduces unnecessary complexity. Without this essential groundwork, even the most sophisticated solutions struggle to meet real-world healthcare demands.
Prioritizing User-Centered Design and Integrity
User-centered design, for Tyler, means involving the user throughout the entire development process, from initial conversations to early prototypes and real-world testing. This approach helps differentiate between what users say they want and what they need to work effectively.
He contrasts general messaging apps with purpose-built healthcare applications, noting how critical it is for clinicians to access relevant patient information and communicate with specialists without unnecessary steps or manual context sharing. “I describe it as me working for the software as opposed to the software working for me,” Tyler says.
Equally important is product integrity, being intentional about what gets built and why. Tyler points out that not every request should become a feature. “It’s far easier to say yes than it is to say no,” he says. “You have to perfect the art of saying no, and that’s what integrity is about.” In a clinical setting, saying “no” can be a responsible decision that protects workflow clarity and patient safety.
For Tyler, integrity works hand-in-hand with alignment, ensuring that teams across product, engineering, and frontline support share a clear understanding of the problem being solved. This cross-functional clarity helps ensure that every solution developed is grounded in clinical reality and delivers measurable value. “Be empowered and know that your voice matters,” Tyler says. “Believe that it’s possible that a solution can be developed that is going to make a difference.”
What’s Next: Thoughtful AI and Data Integration
Looking ahead, Steve Tyler sees significant potential for artificial intelligence and data tools to improve healthcare delivery. However, he emphasizes that these technologies must be introduced carefully to support clinicians rather than take over clinical tasks.
To effectively realize that potential, Tyler believes healthcare organizations must first address a foundational issue: data quality and structure. “From what I’ve seen, what we actually need to do next is get a much better handle on the data,” he says. This means developing tools that are aligned with how clinicians actually work and integrated into workflows, not layered on top of them.
AI and analytics can assist by identifying early signs of patient risk, automating routine administrative tasks, and supporting more accurate clinical decisions. However, for these tools to be truly effective, they must reduce, not add to, the burden on healthcare providers. Solutions must be informed by clinical input and tested in real-world environments to ensure they meet actual care needs. When technology is developed based on clinical input and tested in actual care environments, it is more likely to be adopted and deliver measurable results.
“Everybody needs to care about it, not just those that are writing the code,” Tyler says. The priority is clear: support healthcare professionals, reduce unnecessary workload, and help deliver safer, more reliable patient care. Because ultimately, creating effective healthcare solutions is a shared responsibility…caregivers to be more effective.
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Steve Tyler, is a seasoned healthcare technology leader with a focus on improving clinical communication and patient care. As the former Chief Technology Officer at Vocera Communications, he played a pivotal role in developing solutions that integrate medical device telemetry and contextual notifications into a unified platform. His work at Extension Healthcare introduced situational awareness-based communication systems designed to enhance caregiver response times and patient outcomes. Tyler’s expertise lies in bridging innovation and care through practical, data-driven solutions.