It’s safe to say that healthcare will never be the same. The lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic have shaped every facet of the healthcare industry – from telemedicine to labor management, drug development to primary care. Over the past two years, the healthcare industry has grown and changed in ways we can’t yet comprehend.
As we near the end of another year, we’re reflecting on the advancements and learnings of 2021 and thinking about how we can apply these ideas to our products and services and the advancement of our mission. The following predictions define how we are thinking about what’s next for the healthcare industry and sheds light on some of the most important and timely opportunities for hospital and health system leaders.
Healthcare workers need continued personal recovery from COVID-care exhaustion and burnout.
Chief Executive Officer, Health Catalyst
"As the world comes through the worst aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers will need meaningful opportunities to recover from one of the most difficult, taxing and draining periods in the healthcare ecosystem’s history. Healthcare organizations and leaders that neglect to appreciate this ongoing need, that neglect to provide time, space, support, and meaningful resources for the foreseeable future to enable this critical recovery and renewal, will likely see much higher attrition which could lead to meaningful staffing challenges for years to come."
Figuring out how to identify and acquire the plethora of essential data currently outside the legacy EMRs will be an essential challenge for 2022.
Senior Vice President, Health Catalyst
"Whether the number is 60, 70 or 80 percent, most population health factors – and their associated health outcomes – are not included in most population health programs within large health systems. Where does most of this data come from? Often this data comes directly from the patients themselves through their use of mobile applications, smart health and fitness products, and other health tech tools that interface directly – and often daily - with patients. Healthcare startups are key to a scalable, successful population health management program."
AI moves the needle on health equity.
Chief Analytics and Data Science Officer, Health Catalyst
"Healthcare leaders will soon realize that hiring DE&I leaders isn't enough to move the needle on health equity. Hospitals and health systems will soon turn to data and augmented intelligence to identify and address health equity disparities."
The care model continues to extend outside the health system.
Senior Vice President and General Manager of Data, Health Catalyst
"The US Health System was starting to adopt telehealth as an alternative to increase access to care even prior to COVID 19, but the pandemic has made telehealth an essential piece of the care model. This trend will continue over the next year and with it the need for a data strategy that incorporates new IoT, Patient Portal, and wearables data as well as the governance and orchestration required to incorporate this data into the patients care."
Increasingly large numbers of hospital and healthcare systems Chief Executive Officers and Boards will name Health Equity their organization’s number one strategic priority.
Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer, Health Catalyst
"In the coming year, more organizations will be ready to report findings as transparency and accountability about inequities receives scrutiny from policy makers, rating agencies, the media, community leaders, patients and their families. More organizations will begin to better understand disparities through this data and align their Clinical, Population Health, Care Management, Data Science and Community Outreach teams. Donations and partnerships with nonprofit organizations, educational institutions and social service agencies will be increasingly outcome improvements oriented. Dimensions of diversity will become better understood."
Augmented intelligence adoption will scale across health systems.
Chief Analytics and Data Science Officer, Health Catalyst
"Facing continued operational and financial pressures, healthcare C-Suites, desperate for proven solutions, will go beyond transactional predictive models and adopt augmented intelligence to support organizational, data-driven decision-making."
