Future of Healthcare

In the latest report, The Future of Healthcare, KPMG examines signals of change related to the workforce, economic and supply chain challenges, increased consumerism, market convergence, and the evolving role of data. This report also explores how these factors may shape future healthcare delivery and consumption. Insights on new care model paradigms and the digitally enabled enterprise capabilities and architecture required to support these models and digital transformation in healthcare organizations are also covered.

Signals of change

1. A new reality of customer-centric care

Public expectations are changing due to digital disruptors, sector reforms, and the pandemic experience. Healthcare needs are expected to continue to go unmet, and health systems need to rebuild customer trust after recent failings and issues from the pandemic. Health organizations that provide personalized care, digital services, and products can be better placed to deliver equitable healthcare access and modern experiences.

2. A workforce in crisis

A workforce crisis is undermining today’s healthcare delivery due to burnout and illness during the pandemic. New strategies are needed to address current and long-term workforce needs. Modernizing healthcare by reducing labor-intensive and inefficient processes through digital solutions can help accelerate progress.

3. Harsh economic realities

Health-system leaders must focus on modern strategies to improve operational efficiencies, create new revenue models, and deliver value-based care to drive financial recovery from the pandemic.

4. Fast-changing markets in the digital economy

The healthcare sector is being disrupted by non-traditional entrants such as startups and enterprises — including global players from other industries — diversifying into health. The factors that have the greatest potential to change the landscape of healthcare for marketplace disruptors are business-to-consumer organizations (26%), global supply chain consolidation (22%), data aggregators (19%), subscription healthcare models (17%), and big-tech vendors entering healthcare (15%). Health providers and payors should partner with new entrants to meet consumer-driven demand for modern health and wellness services while focusing on robust privacy and security regimes, and consumer-centric system redesign, to maintain the confidence and trust of health consumers, especially as new operating models emerge.

5. Altered states for supply chains

Geopolitical and post-pandemic impacts have disrupted global healthcare supply chains, including pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, and equipment. Altered supply chains have been susceptible to fraud and exploitation by increasingly inventive and agile actors. These changes have required health systems to creatively assess clinical and operating models while competing for scarce resources.

6. Turning data into trusted insights and value

Health systems must invest in advanced capabilities, infrastructure, processes, and data that essentially support new models of virtual and in-person care. Capitalizing on the value of modern technology requires health enterprises to establish new operating models that unlock value from legacy ways of working. Health systems remain at a very early stage in leveraging data to achieve these lofty goals; robust data governance and management capabilities will likely be required to convert proliferating data into insights enabling forecasting, planning, and bolder decision-making informed by risk and core values.

Transforming Healthcare for the Changing Era

1. High street healthcare - Putting consumers at the center of care

Consumer expectations of care have been rising driven by digital experiences and COVID-19. The consumer-centric digital healthcare should be integrated into everyday experiences. These personalized, ‘demand-driven’ models can empower the consumer to determine when and how they seek and receive care. Digital services also open the door for more diverse revenue streams. Regulation and management have the potential to redefine the consumer experience, improve access, and reduce the cost of care.

2. Meta care - Care in the metaverse is poised for bold a new reality

Various forms of revolutionary virtual-care platforms - featuring advanced digital capabilities such as cloud and AI - exist today, ranging from basic service delivery to complex care. Robotic-assisted surgery and advanced translational AI are transforming the way that pathology, radiology, and intensive care are delivered. These innovations can help improving productivity of highly specialized health professionals, improving quality, safety and clinical decision making, and enhancing service flexibility and access to healthcare specialists. Web 3.0 is also expected to revolutionize healthcare. A key part of Web 3.0 is the metaverse, where physical and digital realities collide in a borderless realm, offering the potential to enhance people’s lives with new opportunities using virtual and augmented reality. On KPMG’s The Future of Healthcare shows that AI and machine learning (27%), intelligent automation and robotics (22%), 5G and the Internet of Things (19%), cloud and edge computing (15%), and cybersecurity (15%) are the most important technology-related factors that have the greatest potential to change the healthcare landscape.

3. Hyper-local care - Supporting inclusivity and accessibility of care

Hyper-local healthcare emphasizes community-controlled models to improve health equity in underserved and culturally or linguistically diverse groups. Some models, such as Indigenous health authorities in Canada, and community-controlled health organizations in Australia, are owned, governed, and managed by a specific community group. These models are positioned to respond to the healthcare context of a community, deliver care in a culturally safe and appropriate manner, and focus on targeted approaches to the social determinants of health. Hyper-local healthcare models can draw on multiple datasets to gain timely and detailed population-level insights. When it comes to care delivery, hyper-local models are typically best suited to primary care, prevention, and well-being. They also play a critical role as brokers to draw on partnerships for certain services such as tertiary care.

“Today, the healthcare ecosystem has transformed to become customer-centric and demands the necessary support of digital technology. Thus, all healthcare organizations must establish policies and encourage people to adopt technology at a rapid pace. This is crucial for improving processes and services in order to adapt to the changing environment. Failure to do so may result in decreased competitiveness.”