New Demographics, Technology, Ideas Shape Healthcare Outlook

A Shifting Landscape

Healthcare is changing.

That’s a statement that rings true in any year, but the scope of workforce and financial challenges, evolving healthcare technology, and other shifts — many discussed by area hospital executives in the story on page 26 — make this an especially uncertain time. Here are four more topics we’ll be talking about as we turn the calendar to 2025.

A High-tech Revolution

High on any list of healthcare trends is the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and its role in transforming the healthcare landscape, offering opportunities for innovation, but also challenges.

“There’s no doubt about it: AI has revolutionized healthcare, driving innovation across the industry,” writes Nicole Witowski, senior content writer at Massachusetts-based Definitive Healthcare. “From life sciences to healthcare providers and suppliers, AI is enabling more accurate diagnostics, personalized treatments, streamlined operations, and much more. In 2025, AI’s role will continue to expand further, particularly in areas like drug discovery, predictive analytics, and operational efficiency.”

Bernard Marr, a writer, influencer, and futurist who specializes in the intersections between business and technology, wrote in Forbes that personalized healthcare today means more than just precision medicine — it’s about tapping into the power of AI and data to address every aspect of a patient’s unique needs.

“The shortage of healthcare providers has significant implications for the health sector, as it affects the access, quality, and cost of healthcare, as well as the health outcomes and satisfaction of the population.”

“Think tailored wellness plans and communication strategies aimed at encouraging hard-to-reach demographic groups to engage with healthcare providers. This personal touch will help push health provision away from reactive to preventive measures, reducing the burden to society caused by rising healthcare costs while also improving patient outcomes — a win-win scenario.”

Marr sees technology challenges too, however, noting that the explosion of health data and records, including that collected by medical wearables, poses cybersecurity risks that need to be addressed, while the healthcare industry lacks enough IT-skilled professionals in its ranks. “In 2025, we’ll see the healthcare industry and health service providers attempting to tackle this by investing in training, reskilling, and partnering with the tech industry.”

A New Voice at HHS

President-elect Trump recently announced the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), where he will oversee significant aspects of the nation’s public-health policy.

Many of his stances — vaccine skepticism, opposition to water fluoridation, and support of alternative treatments and products from hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin to raw milk — are controversial among mainstream medical leaders, but we can expect conversations around those topics and more to increase in the public-health arena.

What isn’t as controversial — and what Trump says Kennedy will focus on — is combating chemicals, pollutants, and additives that many believe contribute to chronic disease in the U.S. Kennedy has called this an easy fix, noting that many food ingredients common in the U.S. are not permitted in European countries.

“Kennedy has called for greater regulation of food additives and ultra-processed foods. Ultra-processed foods in American diets have led to an explosion in obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and other chronic disease,” Céline Grounder, senior fellow and editor-at-large for Public Health at KFF Health News, told CBS recently.

“An aging population means higher use of healthcare services and a greater need for family and professional caregivers.”

“However, it’s unclear which factions within Trump’s orbit will prevail. Congress may have to give the FDA the authority to regulate more aggressively and the funding to enforce those regulations. Historically, the Republican Party has been opposed to regulation. Trump’s chief of staff pick, Susie Wiles, is a longtime lobbyist who has worked on behalf of the food, insurance, and tobacco industries.”

A Hard Look at Senior Care

People age 65 years and older made up 17% of the population in 2020. By 2040, that number is expected to grow to 22%. According to the World Health Organization, the global health workforce was 43.5 million in 2018 and is projected to grow to 53.9 million by 2030, which will still fall short of the estimated demand of 80 million by 2030. In the U.S., a study by the Assoc. of American Medical Colleges predicts a shortage of up to 139,000 physicians by 2033.

According to HHS, “the shortage of healthcare providers has significant implications for the health sector, as it affects the access, quality, and cost of healthcare, as well as the health outcomes and satisfaction of the population.

An aging population means higher use of healthcare services and a greater need for family and professional caregivers.”

At the same time, with more families than ever relying on senior services, the Massachusetts Legislature passed an act boosting patient protections in long-term care and assisted living this past summer.

The bill, among other things, creates a regulatory structure for basic health services in assisted living, shores up review and monitoring of long-term care facilities, and directs the Department of Public Health to develop regulations for small-house nursing homes.

“In addition to strengthening Massachusetts’ long-term care sector, this bill provides innovative tools to address some of the most persistent capacity, discharge, and access challenges being seen on the grounds of our acute-care hospitals,” the Massachusetts Hospital Assoc. said in response to the bill’s passage. “By focusing on the long-term care workforce, the simplification of insurance authorizations, the needs of the most complex MassHealth patients, and important pandemic-era flexibilities, we are hopeful that this legislation can help free up some of the 1,700 hospital beds occupied by patients in need of post-acute-care services.”

Mental Health at the Fore

According to the World Health Organization, in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by 25%, prompting WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to state that “this is a wake-up call to all countries to pay more attention to mental health and do a better job of supporting their populations’ mental health.”

The U.S. healthcare system continues to grapple with the fallout, which is still being felt today. The pandemic especially affected the mental health of young people, and women were more severely impacted than men. Meanwhile, people with pre-existing physical health conditions, such as asthma, cancer, and heart disease, were more likely to develop symptoms of mental disorders.

There is some good news locally, as opioid-related overdose deaths in Massachusetts, after rising in the post-pandemic years, decreased by 10% in 2023 — the largest single-year decline since 2009-10, in fact — and the suicide rate dropped as well. But there’s still plenty of work to do.

And not just at clinics. Employers are increasingly turning to employee-assistance programs and other wellness initiatives, recognizing that addressing the health needs of their employees will not only improve health outcomes, but also increase productivity and reduce healthcare costs.

And getting back to where we started — technology — behavioral-health professionals continue to mine success from a COVID-era development: remote telehealth sessions that many patients find easier to navigate.