What Health Care Could Look Like a Decade from Now

Expect massive vertical consolidation in health care. Payers, providers, suppliers and pharmacies will be under one corporate umbrella. Health insurance as we know it will largely be replaced by subscription-based plans that provide patients with unlimited telehealth consultations along with wellness, fitness and nutrition information.

Some of these trends have already begun, but they will be fully entrenched a decade from now. That’s the vision futurist Michael Rogers laid out at last week’s HIMSS Big Data & Healthcare Analytics Forum. And he forecasts some big changes by the late 2020s in how most care will be delivered.

Healthcare IT News reports Rodgers believes that, rather than being delivered in doctors’ offices or hospitals, most care will be rendered in factory-made diagnostic booths placed in schools, retail pharmacy outlets and other convenient locations. The booths will be outfitted with diagnostic devices, smart sensors and monitors with resolution so high it will appear as if the caregiver is in the same space as the patient. And the IT backbone that’s facilitating this care delivery? Rogers says it will include networks, connected data and artificial intelligence to produce quantified outcomes and maximized quality. Patients will leave these facilities with intelligent digital health tools and intelligent support, including the ability to interact with chatbots.

Of course, patient privacy and security challenges need to be addressed, but Rogers believes that will happen.