The fourth annual Health IT Industry Outlook Survey conducted by Stoltenberg Consulting shows that for the second year in a row, data analytics and business intelligence are the hottest topics of the year.

The health IT consulting firm said 33 percent named data analytics and business intelligence as the biggest topic in health IT, followed by 32 percent who named population health.

However, most (37 percent) said their organizations' data analytics programs are well underway but lack resources to complete requested initiatives. Almost one-third (32 percent) said that correlating data from diverse and dissimilar sources is the biggest hurdle to data analytics.

"Healthcare providers are flooded with piles and piles of EHR data each day," said Sheri Stoltenberg, founder and CEO, Stoltenberg Consulting. "It has now become imperative to learn to sift through the large quantities of complex information to leverage data insights through data analytics for improved clinical care and compliance and operational effectiveness."

Almost half (46 percent) said improving patient care across the continuum is their organizations' key business objective for the year.

"Data cannot support decision making or provoke cultural change if it's out of date, but harmonizing data across the enterprise is essential for giving providers and administrators a meaningful view of a healthcare organization's performance," Stoltenberg said.

The survey was conducted at the 2016 HIMSS annual conference recently held in Las Vegas.

Read the complete results.