Surely the KNB team isn't alone in feeling introspective as we bid adieu to 2022. So, while we’ve leaped into 2023, we want to look back at the industry's past predictions of last year’s trending healthcare topics, analyze how they performed throughout the year, and offer a few insights for the year to come.
The great resignation. Healthcare Dive predicted that the great resignation would continue to be a key pain point for healthcare executives and workers alike. According to our media monitoring tool, Critical Mention, they weren't wrong! Online and print publications featured this topic in the US over 29,000 times throughout the past year, with the peak of coverage in January and a renewed interest in October.
Personalized care. In 2022, HIMSS and Healthcare IT News predicted that the importance of personalized care and patients’ digital health application usage would grow exponentially in the year ahead. With over 59,000 mentions and a 28% increase this year compared to 2021, personalized care and patient-centered digital health solutions will continue to trend far into 2023. Our team of media experts noted that the highest frequency of media coverage on this topic was just last month, indicating it’s on track to dominate news feeds once we pass the holiday lull.
Health equity. In his 2022 prediction, Forbes contributor, Sachin Jain, could not have said it better: “Health equity may be the great embarrassment of our time, and to make things right, we need more revolution than evolution.” So, did we continue to elevate this topic throughout the year, or did we continue to make nominal strides toward an ever-shifting finish line?
According to 2022’s media trends, this topic earned nearly 4 million mentions (3,873,463 to date, to be exact) throughout the year, peaking in August with roughly half a million mentions in one month alone.
While frequently described as witty, inspirational, and dog-oriented, our leadership team is channeling their inner clairvoyant abilities and has shared their predictions for 2023’s trending healthcare topics below. Stay tuned throughout the year to see how their predictions play out!
- Revamped human capital strategies. Healthcare organizations will be forced to examine their failed human capital strategies and enact real change to combat burnout. Pizza parties and free “I’m a Healthcare Hero” t-shirts aren’t going to recruit or retain talent. Financial, emotional, and physical changes will have to happen. Big things like flexible work schedules, on-site childcare, and raises that exceed inflation will become the standard, not the dream. – Amy Roberts, VP of Communications + Client Services
- Explosive AI growth. “Artificial Intelligence” will become closer to “Actual Intelligence” than ever before. It’s the answer to so many of the problems that exist in the healthcare ecosystem. Stretched-thin care teams overburdened with administrative work can lean more on AI-driven software to improve efficiencies. With the help of AI, patients can receive more personalized care and treatment plans. Their experience and control over their own medical records can also improve. AI can also help ferret out cases of health inequity and help address SDOH. The conversation will no longer be around whether AI is viable; it will be about how we can leverage it most effectively. – Beth Cooper, VP of Marketing + Sales
- Remote therapeutic monitoring (RTM). Several factors have led to the perfect storm to buoy remote therapeutic monitoring to new heights. It has been expanding over the past few years, and it will become more and more mainstream. Legislation: The 2022 Physician Fee Schedule final rule added 5 new RTM codes that went live in 2022. This greatly broadened the use cases for Medicare reimbursement of remote monitoring using digital health methods. Venture capital: While it is true digital health funding has been declining, according to CB Insights, there was still over $17B allocated in 2022 alone (and a healthy portion of that was dedicated to RTM tech). Reports convey that investors are simply putting a stronger focus on commercialization, which may mean we will actually see more solutions hit the market more quickly. The U.S. landscape: We absolutely need more at-home monitoring of patients, and it needs to fit easily into their lives. COVID-19 saw more people forego doctor visits and as a result, chronic condition care management is in a critical state. We have an aging population and overtaxed, burned-out healthcare workers. Accessible, reimbursable RTM tech that speaks to interconnected EHRs will be a huge topic in 2023. – Chintan Shah, President + Managing Partner
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