2022 Healthcare Predictions
Last year in this space, we were hopeful that an end to the COVID-19 pandemic was within reach. Unfortunately, we find ourselves in the middle of another worldwide surge of infections, driven largely by the Omicron variant. Although news of spiking cases and hospitalizations is gloomy, recent data suggests that Omicron causes milder symptoms among vaccinated people than Alpha and Delta. Still, Omicron’s high rate of transmissibility requires that we become even more vigilant about improving vaccination rates globally, especially as last year’s hospital bed crisis evolves into this year’s healthcare staffing crisis. Currently, we are likely to fall short of the World Health Organization’s target of 70% of the population in every country being vaccinated by mid-2022. As of January 12, 59% of the world population had received at least one dose of the vaccine, but only 9.5% of people in low-income countries had gotten at least one dose.
Despite the pandemic maintaining its grip on virtually every part of the economy, there are areas where the healthcare industry can speed up innovation. We identified a handful these Opportunities in Motion during our 2021 Health Innovation Summit. And 2022 may be a year in which we see a few other disruptions become normalized. Here are five that we have identified.
This article is posted courtesy of Oliver Wyman and may be access through this link.