Healthcare Innovation in 2040: The Next Big Thing in Patient Care
We pride ourselves on being experts in MDM and PIM. But we also pride ourselves in keeping up with new technologies and industry trends. Today, we’re taking a long view – after all, why look to 2020 when we can leapfrog to 2040 to reveal a potentially different healthcare and patient care reality. From hospital care to clinical research, drug development and insurance, artificial intelligence applications are revolutionizing how the health sector works. The use of Virtual Reality, for example – already in use as an interactive and immersive experience, is being used to transport patients to a place beyond the clinical setting with the goal of reducing patient stress and anxiety.
Many more breakthroughs are expected over the next twenty years, according to Deloitte. According to a report published earlier this year by the analyst firm, the future will be “focused on wellness and managed by companies that assume new roles to drive value in the transformed health ecosystem.” And traditional sectors that now make up the health care ecosystem will likely look completely different by 2040.
Data & Platforms:
Data Convener
Data-gathering organizations will have an economic model built around aggregating and storing individual, population, institutional, and environmental data. They will also promote interoperability and help ensure privacy/security. Data will be used to drive the future of health.
Science and Insights Engine
Some organizations will likely have an economic model driven by their ability to derive insights and define the algorithms that power the future of health. These organizations will conduct research, develop analytical tools, and generate data insights that go far beyond human capabilities in care delivery.
Data and Platform Infrastructure Builder
This new world of health will need infrastructure and platforms that can serve highly empowered and engaged individuals in real time. Someone will need to lay the pipes. Data and platform infrastructure builders will develop and manage site-less health infrastructure to link consumers and health stakeholders and set standards for platform components.
Care Enablement:
Connectors & Intermediaries
These are the logistics providers that will run the just-in-time supply chain, facilitate device and medication procurement operations, and get the product to the consumer.
Individualized Financier
Unlike the health insurers of today, these organizations will create the financial products that individuals will use to navigate their care. These organizations will offer tailored modular and catastrophic care coverage packages. They will drive reductions in care costs by leveraging advanced risk models, consumer incentives and market power.
Regulators
While we will still have regulators, we probably won’t view them as governmental traffic cops. They will set the standards for how business is transacted. The regulators of the future will influence policy to catalyze the future of health and drive innovation while promoting consumer and public safety.
Well-Being and Care Delivery:
Health Product Developer
Health product developers will power the consumer health ecosystem by developing and manufacturing wellness and care products-from applications to drugs and devices. The economic model of these organizations is driven by their ability to enable well-being and care delivery. While there will continue to be organizations that develop products, those products won’t be limited to pharmaceuticals and medical devices. They will also include software, applications and wellness products.
Consumer-Centric Health Community
Along with companies that develop health products, other organizations will provide the structure that supports virtual communities. Consumer-centric health players will provide virtual, personalized wellness and care to consumers; leverage community to encourage behavior change; and drive consumer and caregiver education.
Specialty Care Operator
Two decades from now, we will still have disease, which means we will still need specialty care providers and highly specialized facilities where those patients can receive care. Specialty care operators will provide essential specialty care and interventions when in-home wellness and care efforts are insufficient.
Localized Health Hub
While there will be some specialty care, most health care will likely be delivered in localized health hubs. Localized health hubs will serve as centers for education, prevention, and treatment in a retail setting. Additionally, local hubs will connect consumers to virtual, home and auxiliary wellness providers.