The Future of Health™

COVID-19 has revealed how vulnerable the health care industry is to change and its need for structural and technological transformation. In the future of health, we expect six key areas—data sharing, interoperability, equitable access, empowered consumers, behavior change, and scientific breakthrough—to collectively transform the existing health system from treatment-based reactionary care to prevention and well-being. The traditional boundaries of the industry will dissolve and new roles will emerge in the future of health as exponential innovation propels the industry towards 2040.

Explore what the future of health could look like—a dramatic transformation driven by new business models, emerging technologies, and highly engaged consumers:

2040: Our vision for the future of health

By 2040, health care as we know it today will no longer exist. There will be a fundamental shift from “health care” to “health.” And while disease will never be completely eliminated, through science, data, and technology, we will be able to identify it earlier, intervene proactively, and better understand its progression to help consumers more effectively and actively sustain their well-being. The future will be focused on wellness and managed by companies that assume new roles to drive value in the transformed health ecosystem.

Driven by greater data connectivity; interoperable and open, secure platforms; and increasing consumer engagement, 10 archetypes are likely to emerge and will replace and redefine today’s traditional life sciences and health care roles to power the future of health. The 10 archetypes will fall into three distinct, but interconnected, categories:

• Data and platforms: These archetypes will be the foundational infrastructure that form the backbone of tomorrow’s health ecosystem. They will generate the insights for decision making. Everything else will build off of the data and platforms that underpin consumer-driven health.
• Well-being and care delivery: These archetypes will be the most health-focused of the three groupings, made up of care facilities and health communities—both virtual and physical, and will provide consumer-centric delivery of products, care, wellness and well-being.
• Care enablement: These archetypes will be connectors, financers, and regulators that help make the industry’s “engine” run.

All three components need to be fully functioning and integrated for the future of health to come to life.

Whether it’s just one or several of these archetypes, life sciences and health care organizations need to make choices now to decide which role(s) they want to play in the future. Critical to this decision is understanding how multiple archetypes could fit together into a cohesive strategy and new business models required for success in the future.

What role will you play in the future of health?