/ en Fri, 25 Apr 2025 14:58:09 -0500 Tue, 28 Jan 25 06:15:00 -0600 /2025-01-28-3-top-takeaways-health-care-2025-forecasts <div class="container"><div class="row"><div class="col-md-8"><p><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/3-Top-Takeaways-from-Health-Care-2025-Forecasts.png" data-entity-uuid="1c55b35f-0a86-42f4-8bb6-0f2e68401b7b" data-entity-type="file" alt="3 Top Takeaways from Health Care 2025 Forecasts. A pair of hands holding a globe that displays the words, "2025 Forecast."" width="100%" height="100%"></p><p>Three things are certain in this world: death, taxes and health care predictions for 2025. Each year we review a slew of health care outlooks and, after sifting through them, here are a few of the more interesting hypotheses.</p><h2><span><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Address-workforce-challenges-and-strengthen-core-business-technologies-icon.png" data-entity-uuid="db2deb57-cb3b-41f6-9952-dd0f7bd8413c" data-entity-type="file" alt="Address workforce challenges and strengthen core business technologies.icon." width="524" height="612" class="align-left">1</span> <span>|</span> Address workforce challenges and strengthen core business technologies.</h2><p>Workforce will continue to be a key focus for hospitals and health systems. More than half (58%) of health system executives expect workforce challenges, such as talent shortages, retention issues and the need for upskilling to influence their organizational strategies in 2025, according to <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/health-care/life-sciences-and-health-care-industry-outlooks/2025-us-health-care-executive-outlook.html" target="_blank" title="Deloitte Life Sciences & Health Care: 2025 US health care outlook">Deloitte’s 2025 U.S. Health Care Outlook</a>.</p><p>While workforce challenges remain a top concern, the urgency has decreased compared to two years ago when 85% of executives cited these issues during a substantial exodus of clinical staff, as noted in previous Deloitte U.S. health care outlook surveys. Despite this, many health systems still face clinical talent shortages, clinician burnout and rising labor costs. In 2025, health system leaders have an opportunity to rebuild trust and restore a sense of meaning, value and purpose in their employees’ job.</p><h3>Takeaway</h3><p>The report suggests health care leaders can:</p><ul><li><strong>Redesign work teams.</strong> Health systems can establish comprehensive interdisciplinary care teams, provide curated training programs and map out new career paths for their staff to enhance employees’ connection to the organization and acknowledge their important roles.</li><li><strong>Invest in cost-saving technologies.</strong> According to the Deloitte workforce technology study, generative AI and automation technologies can cut in half the amount of time revenue cycle staff spend on mundane tasks and give bedside nurses 20% more time to spend on direct patient care. Health systems should consider leveraging these technologies and exploring new work modalities, such as virtual nursing, to enable remote work possibilities for clinical staff.</li><li><strong>Prioritize equity in design.</strong> All technology and operational investments and implementation projects at health systems should help ensure equitable access, experience and impact for all users — consumers, clinicians and administrative staff. Understanding the needs and impacts of different populations from a technology or operational change and intentionally designing to meet those needs or mitigate those impacts can help ensure broader adoption.</li></ul><h2><span><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Getting-upstream-of-patient-burnout-is-critical-icon_0.png" data-entity-uuid="b8f8e55e-8c12-41f1-a3b9-d4a503dddab7" data-entity-type="file" alt="Getting upstream of patient burnout is critical icon." width="524" height="612" class="align-left">2</span> <span>|</span> Getting upstream of patient burnout is critical.</h2><p>Many patients who live with chronic disease face symptoms of burnout that can lead to detrimental disengagement from their care, notes a <a href="https://medcitynews.com/2025/01/will-2025-be-the-year-of-patient-burnout/" target="_blank" title="MedCity News: Will 2025 Be the Year of Patient Burnout?">recent essay</a> by Tony Vahedian, CEO of CCS, a provider of clinical programs and home-delivered medical supplies for those living with diabetes or other chronic conditions.</p><p>The coming year will be a critical time for providers and payers to focus on this issue and find ways to provide care in a coordinated and personalized manner, he explained. Diabetes, for example, is a disease of overwhelming, nonstop decision-making, requiring people to stay one step ahead of countless factors each day, including diet and exercise, medications, device readings, doctors’ appointments, insurance coverage and more. Add the usual stressors of family, work and socializing, and it’s a recipe for burnout, also known as “diabetes distress,” which affects 30%-40% of <a href="https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/professionals/diabetes-discoveries-practice/diabetes-distress-and-depression?#:~:text=Diabetes%20distress%20is%20much%20more,of%20diabetes%20distress%20over%20time." target="_blank" title="National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Diabetes Discoveries & Practice Blog: Diabetes Distress and Depression">people with diabetes</a>.</p><h3>Takeaway</h3><p>A key step will be to bring together stakeholders this year to help providers and payers better understand how a person’s ability to engage in self-care and collaborative care can be tied to their level of physical, emotional and administrative distress in coping with the disease day to day. The challenge will be to better understand how to develop proactive, person-centered solutions that address the root causes of distress before they lead to detrimental disengagement.</p><h2><span><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Heres-where-AI-will-make-a-tangible-impact-icon.png" data-entity-uuid="cb49796e-b85c-48a0-9f28-ea1c0f762bd1" data-entity-type="file" alt="Here's where AI will make a tangible impact icon." width="524" height="612" class="align-left">3</span> <span>|</span> Here's where AI will make a tangible impact.</h2><p>Look for the dust to begin to settle around the hype and grandiose promises regarding artificial intelligence in health care and gen AI, notes a <a href="https://assets.contenthub.wolterskluwer.com/api/public/content/2564626-wolters-kluwer-health-2025-predictions-report-pdf-ca08967512?v=cb72af70" target="_blank" title="Wolters Kluwer Health 25 for '25 expert predictions report: Driving momentum in healthcare technology amid dramatic change">Wolters Kluwer Health forecast</a>.</p><p>The top three growth AI areas to watch include improving workflows, enhancing clinician workforce development and patient safety, according to Stacey Caywood, Wolters Kluwer Health CEO. Caywood expects there will more synergies and partnerships to emerge between AI and complementary technologies that serve as a force multiplier for the potential of AI to drive efficiency in the clinical workflow, provide relief from burnout and deliver value for health systems.</p><h3>Takeaway</h3><p>Amid staffing shortages, 2025 will see AI helping future clinicians get on a fast track to practice-readiness. Nursing education tools are being wholly rethought to leverage the capabilities of AI. For example, AI has the potential to boost nurses’ licensure prep so students learn from mistakes with smarter, more personalized reinforcement. Look for AI chatbots to transform virtual reality training by providing lifelike conversations with virtual patients. AI also will accelerate the development and adoption of clinical practice changes as hospital nursing leaders turn to AI to power the often-cumbersome process of updating nursing practice protocols.</p><p>Also, look for AI to play a bigger part in patient safety this year, Caywood says. In 2025, she anticipates that solutions will dig deeper into live health data to identify disconnects in care that often are overlooked and can impact patient safety. “Imagine an AI ‘helper app’ that works 24/7 in the background to identify instances where health care providers may miss a potential test or therapy for a patient,” she says.</p></div><div class="col-md-4"><p><a href="/center" title="Visit the AHA Center for Health Innovation landing page."><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/logo-aha-innovation-center-color-sm.jpg" data-entity-uuid="7ade6b12-de98-4d0b-965f-a7c99d9463c5" alt="AHA Center for Health Innovation logo" width="721" height="130" data-entity- type="file" class="align-center"></a></p><p><a href="/center/form/innovation-subscription"><img src="/sites/default/files/2019-04/Market_Scan_Call_Out_360x300.png" data-entity-uuid data-entity-type alt width="360" height="300"></a></p></div></div></div>.field_featured_image { position: absolute; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0; border: 0; } .featured-image{ position: absolute; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0; border: 0; } h3 { color: #9d2235; } Tue, 28 Jan 2025 06:15:00 -0600 Forecasting /aha-center-health-innovation-market-scan/2024-08-13-4-ways-prep-where-health-care-will-be-delivered-2035 <div class="container"><div class="row"><div class="col-md-8"><p><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/4-Ways-to-Prep-for-Where-Health-Care-Will-Be-Delivered-in-2035.jpg" data-entity-uuid="c6eb547b-e1af-44ba-b557-0fbc70b6f189" data-entity-type="file" alt="4 Ways to Prep for Where Health Care Will Be Delivered in 2035. A hospital executive looks through a telescope to see what 2035 has in store for health care." width="100%" height="100%"></p><p>Big changes are coming to health care over the next decade, with technology innovation supporting significant shifts that will necessitate operational changes for providers.</p><p>Technology will continue to get faster, cheaper and smarter. So-called <a href="https://www.graphcore.ai/posts/graphcore-announces-roadmap-to-ultra-intelligence-ai-supercomputer" target="_blank" title="Graphcore: Graphcore Announces Roadmap to Ultra Intelligence AI Supercomputer">“ultra intelligence”</a> artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers this year are expected to possess four times more parametric capacity than the human brain and be nearly 10 times faster in the number of computations that can be run every second.</p><p>As for how the field will be impacted by the rapidly evolving tech landscape, the consultancy Oliver Wyman recently published an <a href="https://www.oliverwyman.com/our-expertise/insights/2023/dec/fostering-change-in-where-and-how-care-is-delivered.html" target="_blank" title="Oliver Wyman: Fostering Change in Where and How Care Is Delivered">analysis</a> as a follow-up to its <a href="https://www.oliverwyman.com/our-expertise/insights/2023/sep/designing-for-2035.html" target="_blank" title="Oliver Wyman: Designing a Healthcare System for the Next Decade">Designing for 2035 report</a>.</p><h2><span>Forecasting for 2035</span></h2><p>Among the authors’ projections:</p><ul><li><strong>Health care costs will continue to come down</strong> even as workforce expenses and the actionability of data collected remain challenges.</li><li>By 2035, <strong>comprehensive genome sequencing</strong> will be a standard part of medical evaluations, providing insights into an individual’s predisposition to diseases and guiding personalized treatment plans.</li><li><strong>Advanced diagnostic capabilities will expand.</strong> Point-of-care devices and at-home testing kits will provide quick and accurate results for a wide range of conditions, enabling early detection and timely treatment.</li><li>Pharmaceutical companies will <strong>use predictive models to design and test potential drugs</strong> in a matter of days or weeks rather than the years it now takes. Doing a better job of incorporating data into clinical workflows will help ease the burden and burnout that clinicians currently feel from cumbersome technology systems.</li></ul><p>The overall increase in information on outcomes and practice patterns, along with more effective dissemination of data, will enable faster and more accurate treatment decisions. Current struggles with interoperability will be overcome, and data will follow patients in a more efficient manner.</p><h2><span>4 Takeaways for Provider Organizations</span></h2><h3><span>1</span> <span>|</span> Focus on value-added clinical tasks.</h3><p>Some current technological advances already are providing administrative support. Further improvements will come from modifying ChatGPT-like solutions for creating more efficiencies of back-office and other administrative functions. Additionally, AI will support and evolve work completed by nurses, case managers and social workers. Smart implementation of AI systems has the potential to fully automate some tasks, including prior authorizations, care planning and consultations triggered by assessments.</p><h4><span>2035 Outlook</span></h4><p>Keep an eye on robotic medication administration. These systems can identify routine drugs that serve select patients. While these advances significantly will improve everyday efficiency, the rate of adoption will be limited by cost and resource shortages, the report notes. Once this barrier is overcome, hospitals can implement fully baked solutions to optimize operations.</p><h3><span>2</span> <span>|</span> Redistribute care to optimal settings.</h3><p>Hospitals have been important sites of care for two main reasons: economies of scale — reducing the unit cost of care delivery through asset utilization and economies of scope — and using various capabilities and expertise to bend the cost curve and respond to patient variance. But as care delivery has advanced, the impact of economies of scale and scope has diminished. Scale no longer requires being everything to everyone. Likewise, scope needs are lessened through the ability to manage risk and reliance on more precise diagnoses.</p><h4><span>2035 Outlook</span></h4><p>The current inpatient model is capital- and staff-intensive and therefore expensive. It also is not always the safest or most consumer-friendly place to be treated, the report states. Patient preferences and logistics may make being at home the optimal site of care and the authors predict care settings will shift dramatically over the next decade.</p><h3><span>3</span> <span>|</span> Move care from inpatient to outpatient where appropriate.</h3><p>Coming tech advances will lessen the need for inpatient admissions for certain conditions and surgical procedures. Shifts in care protocols, including minimally invasive procedures and improved rehabilitation techniques, will accelerate this transition.</p><h4><span>2035 Outlook</span></h4><p>Expect retail clinic settings to have an impact in this area with their easy accessibility, lower cost structure and a strong focus on preventive care.</p><h3><span>4</span> <span>|</span> Explore moving some inpatient services to home care.</h3><p>The most disruptive transition between now and 2035 could come in this area. The authors project that 64% of inpatient admissions could be moved to the home by 2035, enabled by both improved therapeutics and more effective virtual care.</p><h4><span>2035 Outlook</span></h4><p>At-home care has limitations. Shifting out of an inpatient setting is not feasible for high-risk situations or overly invasive procedures. And not everything that is available to move to the home should, the report states.</p><p>The overall infrastructure still isn’t robust enough to match the potential transition. Only about 40% of U.S. homes were considered to have the most basic aging-ready features, according to a <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2023/aging-ready-homes.html#:~:text=Highlights%3A,aging%2Dready%20homes." target="_blank" title="United States Census Bureau: Census Bureau Releases New Report on Aging-Ready Homes">2023 Census Bureau report</a>, and large areas of rural America, as well as some inner cities, still lack <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024/computer-internet-use-2021.html" target="_blank" title="United" states census computer and internet use in the united>access to broadband</a>. Still, significant growth could occur in the home care setting.</p></div><div class="col-md-4"><p><a href="/center" title="Visit the AHA Center for Health Innovation landing page."><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/logo-aha-innovation-center-color-sm.jpg" data-entity-uuid="7ade6b12-de98-4d0b-965f-a7c99d9463c5" alt="AHA Center for Health Innovation logo" width="721" height="130" data-entity- type="file" class="align-center"></a></p><p><a href="/center/form/innovation-subscription"><img src="/sites/default/files/2019-04/Market_Scan_Call_Out_360x300.png" data-entity-uuid data-entity-type alt width="360" height="300"></a></p></div></div></div>.field_featured_image { position: absolute; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0; border: 0; } .featured-image{ position: absolute; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0; border: 0; } Tue, 13 Aug 2024 06:15:00 -0500 Forecasting