The pandemic brought into focus the state of the healthcare sector across OECD countries. There has been immense transformation in healthcare since the pandemic.

• National health expenditures (NHE) and personal health care (PHC) expenditures from 2023 to 2031 → NHE: $4,666.3B (2022) to $7,174.7B (2031) - PHC: $3,896.7B (2022) to $6,034.2B (2031)

Since the pandemic, we have witnessed a transformation of the health sector in the US, and new trends have emerged.

• Digital Health Integration: telehealth, health apps, and wearable devices,  digital solutions to mainstream healthcare/hospital care. 
• IoT-Powered Virtual Hospitals And Telemedicine 2.0
• Virtual And Augmented Reality In Healthcare
• AI/ML: diagnostics, personalized medicine, and predictive analytics + operational efficiency
• Value-Based Care: A shift from fee-for-service to value-based care models, focusing on improving patient outcomes and reducing costs, Digital Technologies will enable this.

Challenges:

• Digital integration challenges (lack of expertise, practitioner buy-in, funding)
• Access and inequalities: disparities to access include socioeconomic factors and geographic location, Equity is top of mind (digital health integrations can help)
• Cost of healthcare: How can digital integration potentially help control costs while maintaining quality and accessibility
• Data Security and Privacy: digitization of healthcare records and the use of electronic health systems puts data at increased risk
• Workforce Shortages: persistent challenge + shortages in health tech-elated positions (can digital inclusions help mitigate this?)