What early adopters already know about getting identity right
Healthcare is in the middle of a major shift. As the industry pushes toward digital transformation, AI adoption, and seamless interoperability, one thing is becoming clear: without trusted identity data, nothing works. Identity isn’t just a background function; it’s the foundation that supports everything.
This year’s Gartner Hype Cycle for Real-Time Health System Technologies reflects this shift. Next-Generation EMPI (Enterprise Master Patient Index) is now recognized as a high-benefit technology and early adopters are seeing real-world impact.
Identity Is No Longer Just a Background Function
For a long time, managing patient identity data was treated as a behind-the-scenes task. It wasn’t perfect, but it was tolerated. As data grew more fragmented and healthcare more digital, the cracks started to show. Duplicate records, mismatches, and missed connections. Now, with AI, analytics, and digital experiences all depending on clean, connected data, identity can’t stay in the background. It has to lead.
Trusted identity data is now essential to:
- Supporting interoperability across fragmented systems
- Improving patient safety and operational efficiency
- Making digital front doors actually work
- Powering AI and analytics with clean, trusted inputs
EMPI is Moving from Emerging to Essential
In the Gartner Hype Cycle, “adolescent” technologies are past the hype and early experimentation phase. They’ve proven their value, but haven’t yet reached widespread adoption. That’s exactly where Next-Generation EMPI sits today.
The tech is working. Early adopters are already seeing results. But many organizations are still relying on legacy systems or haven’t prioritized identity as part of their transformation strategy. That creates a gap between what’s possible and what’s typical.
For healthcare leaders, this is a moment of opportunity. Investing in a Next-Generation EMPI solution now, means getting ahead of the curve. And that’s where the Hype Cycle is useful. It helps organizations understand not just what’s new, but what technologies are ready to deliver at scale.
What to Look for in a Modern EMPI
If you’re evaluating EMPI solutions, here are four things to keep in mind:
- Accuracy that scales – Can it reliably match and link identities across messy, inconsistent data?
- Cloud-native flexibility – Is it built to integrate across modern data ecosystems and scale with your org?
- Real-time performance – Can it support enterprise-wide workflows without lag?
- Referential matching – Does it go beyond probabilistic matching to use external reference data for unmatched precision?
Why it matters now
The future of healthcare – AI, automation, personalized care experiences – all depends on trusted data. And trusted data starts with identity. That’s why Next-Gen EMPI is gaining momentum. It’s not just solving a back-end data problem, it is helping to enable smarter, more connected care.
And while several vendors are in the space, only a few are delivering real value at scale. Verato is one of them, and has been recognized in the 2025 Gartner Hype Cycle for Real-Time Health System Technologies in the Next-Generation EMPI category.
Download the Gartner report to learn more about why identity is central to healthcare’s future.
