Healthcare in 2025: an AI-driven, patient-focused future

The U.S. healthcare industry's future will be defined by 4 themes in the next year, according to industry leaders who participated in the 2024 Capital One TripleTree Healthcare Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., in mid-November.

While the industry, like many others, faces broad economic challenges from interest-rate volatility, global conflicts and political uncertainty in the U.S., business leaders are seeing the potential for innovation and evolution to usher in a new era of affordable, accessible and more flexible healthcare. 

“We see some market momentum, and we see opportunities to promote growth in a more robust transaction landscape in 2025,” said Jim Seymour, Capital One’s head of Specialty Corporate Banking. "And more importantly, we see an emphasis on delivering healthcare in better, more efficient ways for each of the patients that you all serve.”

Many of those efficiencies will be consumer focused, especially for drug development and delivery. 

“We’ve seen a shift,” TripleTree Director Colin Aldridge said. “The pharma landscape has moved from pill-first to more patient-centered approaches.”

Panel participants and speakers covered a broad range of issues, with 4 key themes emerging from the discussion:

While AI may eventually help with diagnoses and care delivery, the immediate benefits will be administrative applications such as documentation, scheduling, data retrieval, training and supply-chain management. 

• AI can automate repeatable workflows, which can enhance patient experience. Some systems, like payments, are using AI for better efficiency. Others, such as those for booking appointments, still need work. 
• Technology isn’t the biggest barrier to AI adoption—people are. Best practices for a smooth transition to AI adoption include making sure that technology developers and healthcare providers approach patient and staff hesitation with empathy. They also need to be transparent and responsible by clearly explaining how private information would be used to benefit them with new technology.

Patients increasingly see healthcare as a consumer product. Providers should give thought to the value of services they provide and offer greater transparency to patients.

• AI is most beneficial when it’s designed to address the needs of doctors, nurses, administrators and patients. 
• Healthcare consumers are coming to expect the same frictionless experiences for payment, interoperability and communication that are already embedded into other online experiences. 
• Providers should look at creating similar consumer-oriented experiences to retain patients and staff. 
• Patients and employers are frustrated by the inability to find primary care doctors that accept new patients, which is giving rise to more alternative healthcare access points. 
• Employers are looking for more ways to manage healthcare costs and improve outcomes without increasing the cost on employees.

Commercial strategies are shifting from marketing-driven models to evidence-based insights and analytics. Collecting and using real-world data remains a challenge, however.

• At the same time, patients expect the same results as promised in advertising, and they don’t understand that real-world outcomes and their own behavior can produce different results than clinical studies. 
• Cost and insurance coverage are the biggest barriers to patient access for specialty drugs. 
• Drug makers must also recognize the role of consumerism in driving patient engagement, especially when it comes to reaching different demographic groups.

AI cannot fully replace personal interaction in healthcare. People still want to talk to their doctors. 

• With staff burnout on the rise, providers should embrace listening and understanding and take actions to enhance the work environment as a strategy to help improve the organization’s operational performance. 
• Healthcare organizations need to think of themselves as anticipatory enterprises, rather than reactionary ones.

Discover how our specialized healthcare advisory team can help you find solutions to meet your business needs.

 

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