As we reach the halfway point of the decade, the rapid and continuing evolution of digital technologies puts us on the verge of fulfilling a long-promised transformation of the healthcare and life sciences industries. Advances in cloud computing, AI, machine learning, and autonomous systems are on the verge of driving breakthrough innovation at a speed and magnitude not formerly possible. In tandem, these technologies are strengthening cybersecurity to help protect healthcare data while enabling capabilities that can improve clinical outcomes, increase efficiency, and reduce costs.
This will help us get closer to the ultimate vision of an integrated healthcare and life sciences ecosystem that allows providers to be healers and innovators, not data entry clerks; payers to create payment models based on clinical and financial outcomes at scale; researchers to identify trial sites and participants more efficiently. Most importantly, it will put patients at the center of everything.
As we look ahead to 2025, we expect to see more organizations:
Move from EHR systems of record to intelligent care platforms
Most current EHRs were built in the ‘90s and developed around managing payments, not helping patients and providers. The industry has simply outgrown them and needs new solutions to new problems like incessant provider burnout. In the coming year, we expect we will see more healthcare systems looking to a new generation of EHRs to serve as their digital backbone. It is really a misnomer to call them EHRs, because they are so much more than today’s clinical record-keeping systems.
Networks should continually look to evolve EHRs from systems of record to systems of intelligence. These intelligent care platforms can integrate diverse data sources, generative AI, advanced analytics, and secure data interoperability to transform clinical workflows, bringing insights, predictions, and automation to every process — from patient histories and care plans to billing and coding, to the identification of potential clinical trial eligibility. These new platforms can connect seamlessly with health system finance, HR, and supply chain management systems, to increase productivity and efficiency.
The next-generation EHRs will help free physicians from the burden of laboriously documenting and coding patient encounters, often on their own time, which has led to high levels of dissatisfaction and burnout. Providers will be able to leverage AI for ambient listening, as well as intuitive voice-activated search and navigation, so physicians will spend less time capturing information on their office laptops and more time looking at and listening to their patients, creating bonds of trust that are so important to patient healing.
Prioritize cybersecurity
The vulnerability of healthcare systems to cyberattacks has been painfully confirmed in recent years, as the number and scale of these malicious attacks have continued to escalate. It’s no surprise that systems have been vulnerable, as many healthcare IT systems, including EHRs, are operating on dated technology. Moreover, with myriad third-party point solutions and sustained underinvestment in cybersecurity systems and expertise, the healthcare industry has generally proven to be no match for today’s sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals. They see healthcare as easy prey.
The federal government seems likely to take a more aggressive stance in requiring hospitals, health systems, and even physician groups to do more to implement cybersecurity safeguards. Relying on voluntary industry standards to date has not proven sufficient. Tougher security standards may require more financial support from smaller hospitals and health systems, but that commitment can help create better protection against existing and emerging threats.
In addition to new regulations, we should expect to see more healthcare organizations moving to cloud platforms to manage their data networks and take advantage of autonomous cybersecurity tools to continuously monitor their networks to identify and protect against threats. We also expect to see more AI-driven cybersecurity capabilities built into IT products and services designed for the healthcare industry.
Push for more universal data standards to drive full interoperability
Astronauts can live for months in a space station, but we still haven’t figured out how to exchange digital health data effectively so providers and caregivers have all the information they need, when they need it to make critical decisions for their patients. EHRs have been siloed and restricted from use across the entire healthcare ecosystem, limiting the potential for innovation.
Advancing interoperability in healthcare to improve patient care and reduce costs may ultimately hinge on multi-stakeholder collaboration and the adoption of universal data standards. This shift requires coordinated efforts across technology vendors, healthcare systems, and governments to establish seamless, secure data exchange using next-generation cloud platforms.
Agreed-upon frameworks like HL7 FHIR, TEFCA in the U.S., and the EU’s European Health Data Space are setting the foundation, but achieving scalable interoperability demands unified action on data governance, regulatory alignment, and cybersecurity measures. In the future, such collaboration can empower proactive, personalized care and cost-efficiency by enabling a connected, data-driven healthcare ecosystem that benefits both individual and public health.
Get real about patient-centered care and AI-enabled engagement portals
While everyone talks about putting patients first, that reality does not exist everywhere today. Both the healthcare and life sciences industries have traditionally designed systems and processes around their needs because patients had few options and providers were the experts. However, these industries are getting serious about the role of patients as partners who want a say in decisions about their health and have choices about where and how they receive care. Patients want to be empowered with more information about their health and their options. They want to know what trials they are eligible for and make decisions about participation. Patients also increasingly want to influence the design and objectives of clinical research as a condition for participation.
The industries are recognizing how technology is empowering patients with information about their health and tools to track — in real time and over time — changes in bodily functions and performance, from sleep to exercise. Today, getting access to one’s complete electronic medical record is very difficult. But, progress toward full interoperability is making it possible to assemble, store, and transmit increasingly complete, longitudinal patient medical histories – and patients will justifiably expect the right to own and manage those records, including decisions about who has access to parts or all of the information they contain.
These medical histories in many cases may be stored in patient portals that look nothing like the unwieldy and largely unhelpful portals of today. These portals will be a key element of provider strategies to engage and develop long-term relationships with their patient-customers. The new portals can use AI to create “virtual assistants” which will help patients interpret diagnostic reports and care plans, as well as to provide educational information about their medical conditions and ways to stay healthy.
In 2025, patients will become partners in their care, or they will go elsewhere for it.
Unite clinical research and clinical care
The future of clinical research lies in integrating real-world data (RWD) with clinical trial data to accelerate innovation. Sourced from EHRs, claims, registries, wearables, and patient-reported outcomes, RWD captures how drugs, devices, and other therapies perform in diverse, real-life settings. Harnessing the ability of AI-powered analytic tools to discern clinical insights from vast amounts of RWD and clinical trial data, researchers can gain a holistic view of treatment safety and long-term effectiveness, enabling adaptive research and the development of precision medicines.
This integration will also allow regulatory bodies to make earlier, conditional decisions on drug approvals, with post-market surveillance over a defined period becoming part of the final approval process as long-term patient outcomes are tracked and analyzed. In essence, every patient can become a participant in clinical research – whether the studies are done on new medicines in development or existing ones, where new indications can be found and real-world safety issues confirmed or disproven.
The line between clinical research and clinical care will blur, creating a virtuous cycle as data flows seamlessly from bench to bedside and back. By bridging this gap, continuous discovery and delivery can help to transform the way research and care come together—until it’s all just care. We will see more networks embed clinical trial opportunities and data directly within EHR platforms to transform research from a separate process into a seamless component of patient care—enabling clinical trials that never end. This model will allow for real-time patient recruitment, continuous data capture, and rapid trial initiation, making routine clinical interactions opportunities for discovery.
Reduce payer/provider friction
Today, the administrative discord between healthcare payers and providers is not just frustrating – it is also expensive, with some estimates placing administrative costs in the U.S. healthcare system at 20-25% of total spending. Both sides could soon be able to use AI-powered systems to leverage automation and interoperability in order to reduce this inefficiency.
Payers envision a “closed information loop” between themselves and the providers caring for their members so they can share information freely and securely. They would like to push relevant member information into provider EHRs at the point of order entry or referral. This would help providers make more informed care decisions, automate authorizations, close gaps in care, and aid in coding and risk adjustment.
Existing processes from prior authorization through claims management involve many manual steps by payers and providers alike. Streamlining and accelerating prior authorizations can lead to significant savings, increase the timeliness of care, improve frontline provider satisfaction, and strengthen payer-provider relationships. Because let’s face it — most prior authorizations ultimately get approved, so we should focus resources on the outliers and leave the routine work to machines.
More systems will explore how the claims management process – even to the point of developing “real-time claims adjudication” through the provider’s EHR or revenue cycle management system – can mean fewer claims edits and reduced claims management expenses.
Compared to many other industries, healthcare and life sciences have been slow to adopt and effectively leverage new digital technologies. We still use fax machines in healthcare! But I believe we have reached a tipping point where, after decades of disappointment, AI, cloud computing, and other digital technologies can finally deliver on the promise of revolutionizing patient care and increasing the effectiveness of healthcare systems around the globe. 2025 will be the year the revolution begins in earnest.
