MobiHealthNews queried health executives from across the digital health industry and asked them for their insights into key issues impacting health systems and patients.

In part two of this two-part series on the year's biggest takeaways, executives discuss topics ranging from smart monitors to advances in telehealth, wearables and the direct-to-consumer movement. 

Amit Khanna, senior vice president and general manager of health at Salesforce

Generative AI, the technology that captivated the world with ChatGPT in 2022, has now matured into a powerful tool for businesses in 2024. Its impact can be seen beyond simple tasks like summarization and email composition, revolutionizing industries with its ability to drive efficiency and innovation.

Additionally, there has been progress towards the Federal Reserve Bank's goal of 2% inflation, resulting in some relief in interest rates. This positive development is expected to stimulate deal-making activities as businesses become more optimistic about the economic outlook.

Don Woodlock, head of global healthcare solutions at InterSystems

Companies failing to prioritize foundational elements of artificial intelligence will struggle to realize the full potential of GenAI.

There is a stark contrast between the enthusiasm for generative AI and the foundational work needed to support it. While genAI holds immense promise, its success hinges on a robust, surrounding infrastructure. This includes enhanced interoperability between data systems, efficient data pipelines into genAI applications and ensuring data quality, accuracy and security. Without these elements, much of the progress we’ve already achieved with genAI will eventually hit a wall when we try to do more advanced things with the technology.

Sean Mehra, cofounder and CEO of HealthTap

Brick-and-mortar primary care is a very difficult business to make profitable; retailers that are divesting will take considerable time before they re-enter the market with a different strategy. 

Secondly, AI is still in a dominating hype cycle: high valuations, lots of buzz, limited use cases and too early to measure ROI. 

On the employer front, employer benefits will undergo a seachange with turnover and evolving strategies. For insurers and PBMs, they will continue to come under pressure as profits rise while healthcare access and affordability deteriorate. 

Finally, data security and vendor concentration risk have never been more real of a consideration in light of the Change Healthcare breach and outage.

Matt Cybulsky, practice leader of healthcare AI, data and product innovation at LBMC

We're not near the crested wave of AI's impact yet. That's the main takeaway for 2024.

The gold standard of in-person care is changing as a function of AI's influence. In-person could not be beaten before AI and largely still can't. Yet, the silver standard of care – care through an interface – has become something that might make the separation between the two indistinguishable in the near future. 

We have insight from patients and consumers when they interact with digital models, which reveal more than a rushed, in-person encounter: preferences, social mores, raw honesty; this reality combined with AI's power is starting to make 2024 feel like a beginning, not a far off destination of patient care, interaction, outcomes and possibilities.  

For 2024, the purpose of our application for AI (e.g., fast, slow, virtuous, high quality), and not just knowing we can apply it all, has begun to emerge. You can't fake a valuable, interpretable and measurable use case for AI. Every other claim made in 2024 must climb this hill first before finding relevancy, credibility and growth.  

Laurent Martinot, cofounder and CEO of Sunrise

Over the past year, specialized personal healthcare powered by technological applications has become a huge industry trend. With the mainstream introduction of smart monitors, it has become easier than ever for consumers to track, access and activate their health and sleep data. By harnessing sleep data, people are beginning to take a greater interest in how sleep affects nearly every aspect of health, from mental health to chronic diseases.

Monica Cepak, CEO of Wisp

In 2024, women's healthcare continued to evolve with a focus on reproductive rights and access to care as we move forward in a Post-Roe world. Advances in telehealth, wearables and AI are empowering women to take control of their health while growing attention is being given to chronic conditions like PCOS and endometriosis, perimenopause and menopause. 

This year, we have also seen a strong push for health equity, with efforts to address disparities among underserved communities as reproductive care deserts rapidly grow across the country, improve access to care and implement policies like paid family leave. Overall, women's health is becoming more personalized, integrated and inclusive, a larger theme I believe we will continue to see manifest in 2025 trends. 

Dr. Mitesh Rao, founder and CEO of OMNY Health

The industry has spent a lot of time talking about synthetic data. Now, people have realized that actual patient data with proof of source is what you need to have AI algorithms truly trained to represent the entire population. 

As new AI systems emerge, it is increasingly important to understand and trust algorithms' outputs. There's been a big push for healthcare to move into a data-driven future, and we're starting to see that actualized by the growth of generative AI, analytics and precision medicine, all of which center around data. Real-world data is the future. 

Liz Beatty, cofounder and chief strategy officer at Inato

The direct-to-consumer movement has taken both the healthcare and biopharmaceutical industries by storm. For some use cases, this is a positive development that can make medical guidance and treatment more accessible – but in other cases, bringing information and opportunities directly to patients isn’t enough to inspire action. 

I see this all the time in clinical trials, with companies executing mass marketing campaigns or using new solutions to identify and communicate with likely trial candidates. These efforts can find the right patients, but they usually fail to boost enrollment because the “last mile” between awareness and opt-in is so complex. The decision requires consideration with trusted care teams and support systems, and I’ve seen firsthand that most people won’t participate without buy-in from their doctor. Any outreach approach that underestimates the complexity of this process is unlikely to meaningfully improve participation. 

Liat Primor, founder and CEO of FeelBetter 

There were a number of big takeaways that drove the U.S. healthcare system this year. First, the financial impact of the COVID crisis in provider settings still lingers, but we are finally starting to see more organizations have less negative financial returns. 

Additionally, we've seen GLP-1s become a game changer for obesity management, though we are still waiting to see real-world evidence to confirm their long-term outcomes. 

On the provider business front, health system consolidation is leading to a more efficient workforce and better patient care delivery, and we can now firmly say that value-based care is here to stay, with this year marking record savings from ACOs and other value-based care agreements. 

Elliott Green, CEO and cofounder of Dandelion Health

2024 was a year of growth and trust-building for AI in healthcare – especially in relation to the adoption of GenAI as a tool to drive clinical productivity and help doctors work at the top of their license.

Life sciences organizations also adopted AI more so in 2024 with a focus on areas such as applying AI to drive efficiencies in the design and execution of clinical trials and identifying patients that will benefit most from a drug. That said, pharma was undoubtedly more reluctant to lean fully into AI in 2024, likely because of the massive costs associated with adopting AI and concerns with the proven value of AI at this stage of development. 

Chris Gervais, chief technology officer at CodaMetrix

2024 marked a shift toward patient-centric healthcare driven by advances in technology. With increased processing power on smartphones and the development of smaller, on-device machine learning models, tech giants like Apple took significant steps forward. Innovations such as Siri-enabled personal health insights integrated into Apple Health showcase how consumer tech is reshaping healthcare delivery, making it more personalized and accessible.

Karl Ulfers, CEO and cofounder of DUOS

Stability is around the corner. At DUOS, we heavily partner with Medicare Advantage plans and engage older adults and their caregivers. The past two years have been challenging for these plans and the ecosystem around them. From distribution to Star Ratings to risk management/adjustment, every aspect of their business has been impacted. I believe that as we enter 2025, the worst is behind this sector of our healthcare system.