Foreword
Among the trends accelerated by Covid-19 are adoption and innovation in digital health. People flocked to tele-health and well-being apps during successive waves of the pandemic and many people plan to keep using virtual care. As a result, they increasingly expect healthcare providers, employers, insurers and regulators to provide access to digitally enabled health services.
On the supply side, a surge of innovation in enabling technologies – such as artificial intelligence, robotics, 5G, 3D printing, the internet of things and genomics – are giving rise to new ways to improve access, affordability and quality of healthcare. By facilitating and applying these advances, incumbents and new entrants have tremendous opportunity to both capture value and contribute to healthy societies.
At the same time, digital technologies also are changing risk and cost profiles. Many organizations lack information, capacity and capabilities to evaluate products and vendors and there’s a risk that AI-driven medicine could entrench and amplify health disparities embedded in algorithms or training data. Given the sensitivity of health data, healthcare is vulnerable to cyber attacks, as well as trust, reputation, and liability risks. New financing and risk-sharing approaches should be available to incentivize breakthrough innovations as well as affordability.
This collection of insights comes from experts across Marsh McLennan businesses, spanning risk, strategy and people perspectives. A mix of articles, infographics and interviews explore an evolving landscape of opportunities and challenges at the intersection of technology and health, and how health sector stakeholders can respond effectively. I hope that you find these perspectives informative.
Martine Ferland
President and Chief Executive Officer, Mercer
Vice Chair, Marsh McLennan
Leader, Marsh McLennan Healthy Societies Initiative
