CHICAGO—As technology rapidly evolves, strategic partnerships will play a key role in advancing innovation in healthcare by not reinventing the wheel, industry leaders said Monday.

And, increasingly, these partnerships should be focus on simplifying technology to remove administrative headaches for clinicians.

Case in point: Royal Philips announced a collaboration with Amazon Web Services at the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society's global conference this week. Shortly after that announcement, Royal Philips CEO Roy Jakobs joined other health execs to speak on the importance of strategic innovation.