In 2017, international consulting firm Deloitte released its 2022 predictions for technology. The report, entitled Life Sciences and Health Care Predictions 2022, had some forward-thinking predictions, and some of them have admittedly seemed a little far-fetched. They couldn’t predict a global pandemic that disrupted much of what we call life as we know it. What were those predictions, and how do they fit in with what we see on the horizon?
Deloitte’s 2022 Predictions
Deloitte had six predictions in their report for the life sciences and healthcare industry. They based these predictions on some of the trends they saw at that time, including:
- Demographic trends include the average life expectancy increase, the aging baby boomer population, increasing use of telehealth tools, and more.
- Economic trends, such as the rapid climb of our healthcare expenditures and increased spending on technology in the healthcare space.
With these trends in mind, Deloitte made six predictions for healthcare next year, including:
- Patients will be “quantified” as more genetic data will become available on the individual patient. Deloitte says, “In 2022, individuals are better informed about their genetic profile, the diseases they have or might develop, and the effectiveness of health interventions.
- Digital technologies will transform healthcare. Deloitte predicts “smart healthcare,” a trend driven by advanced AI algorithms that automate workflows for a better patient experience.
- Life science will become industrialized in 2022, according to Deloitte. This means traditional scientific processes will be replaced by a lean operating model that increases go-to-market time.
- Like every other industry, data will become a sort of currency in healthcare next year. More healthcare systems will look at data to fuel their population health initiatives, and clinical guidelines will evolve into “computer algorithms to support clinicians and payers to find optimal treatments.”
- According to Deloitte, we’re living in healthcare’s future, and the industry will move more toward predictive and preventative medicine as a result. Imagine individualized treatments that move away from the average patient to personalize the experience, and you’ll get a sense of where Deloitte thinks we’re heading.
- As healthcare leans more on Big Tech to change the paradigm, more disruptors will crop up. This is a safe prediction for Deloitte, given the state of technology innovation in the U.S. today.
What’s shocking about the Deloitte predictions, which date to 2017, is that most of them are more accurate than not. The biggest fly in the ointment, in terms of their predictions, was the COVID-19 pandemic, which changed the very way healthcare providers and patients do business as well as slowing some of the digitally-focused predictions Deloitte made. For example, telemedicine exploded in 2020 and didn’t appear to be slowing. And, while data may be the new currency, COVID slowed or squashed many of the preventative population health initiatives that Deloitte predicted. Slowed pandemic markets also slowed the pace of disruption. However, life sciences certainly improved their processes as they sped to market with COVID vaccines. The captured data on the virus, which is growing daily, also cut the peer review process half as publishers worked feverishly to disseminate what we know.
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