What will dominate healthcare in the next decade?

The Future Health Report from international wealth managers Julius Bär explores the ways in which healthcare might change in the coming decades.

The Future Health Report explores three key areas of predicted healthcare change:

1. Extended longevity

The growing prevalence of chronic diseases associated with the increasing share of the greying population will have profound implications for the healthcare systems for decades to come. Assistive technologies that enable healthcare professionals to continuously monitor the health conditions of the elderly should become even more important in the future.

Older patients can benefit in a number of ways from the progressive uptake of digital-health technologies. Not only can healthcare specialists help ageing individuals reduce the likelihood of contracting more severe forms of chronic diseases through the early detection of health abnormalities, but hospital admissions can also be avoided, thereby relieving pressure from healthcare systems and keeping a lid on burgeoning medical costs.

Thanks to digital-health technologies, data related to patients’ blood oxygen saturation, heart rate and blood pressure can be measured via remote monitoring tools such as wearables and transmitted from the comfort of the patients’ homes to their physicians in real time. Seniors no longer have to undertake long journeys to see their medical providers or endure queues and big crowds at clinics and hospitals for simple medical examinations, especially in countries where geographical constraints, public transport and healthcare systems pose additional challenges.

2. Genomics

Medical professionals are fighting battles against deadly diseases. Cell and gene therapies have increasingly emerged as a promising treatment option for a myriad of complex clinical conditions. These may include genetic disorders that arise from malignant mutations in our DNA, such as cancer and sickle-cell disease, as well as non-genetically acquired diseases, such as Ebola, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the bubonic plague.

3. Life science disruption

Gene-based therapies are positioned at the intersection of cutting-edge healthcare innovation, big data in medicine and unmet medical needs with high return potential.

As healthcare costs are placing a rising burden on consumers all over the world, digital technologies have increasingly been adopted across the healthcare industry.

These innovations along with other structural trends have been pushing life expectancy upward and changing lifestyles.

Acceleration of digital health

The pandemic has accelerated the further digitalisation of the healthcare industry, particularly with a focus on telemedicine, mobile health and medical technology.

Medtech is a broad sector that encompasses the use of any technology that can save or improve the quality of life of individuals suffering from a multitude of health conditions. It may range from familiar objects such as syringes and hearing aids, to more sophisticated devices such as medical robots, body scanners, intraocular lens and replacement joints for knees and hips.

The road ahead

The future of healthcare will be shaped by favourable structural trends and developments in the industry. Areas that are related to digital health, genomics and extended longevity should see further upside potential over the longer term, given the political tailwinds, momentous demographic forces around the world, the rise of chronic diseases associated with ageing, as well as the growing financial burden of healthcare.