Top 10 Healthcare Game Changers

Do you know what top trends will contribute to a new model of insight-driven health for Canada? This article presents health professionals and interested readers with Accenture’s insights into the top 10 trends shaping Canada’s healthcare transformation. These critical forces include organizational and structural reinvention, new options for providers and clinical transformation, emerging technologies and innovative consumer tools.

These game-changing trends will help private healthcare providers, public health organizations and patients take a proactive position amid shifting market dynamics to make the most of Canada’s changing healthcare landscape. While each trend is unique, together, they will contribute to a new model of insight-driven health for Canada.

Learn more about these trends. Discover how prepared your organization is for the future face of healthcare in Canada. What can you do today to be best prepared for tomorrow’s opportunities? How can your organization take the lead to realize high performance?

Accenture’s insight-driven health is the foundation of more effective, efficient and affordable healthcare for today. That’s why the world’s leading healthcare providers and health plans choose Accenture for a wide range of insight-driven health services that help them use knowledge in new ways—from the back office to the doctor’s office. Our committed professionals combine real-world experience, business and clinical insights and innovative technologies to deliver the power of insight-driven health.

Drawing from our global healthcare experience and work with health organizations across Canada, Accenture’s healthcare professionals have determined ten emerging healthcare game changers. From healthcare clouds to exporting health, these trends have exciting potential to reinvent healthcare sooner than some observers may imagine.

They are technology-driven, information-powered trends. They include organizational and structural reinvention. They also include new options for providers and care delivery. We also see a strong emphasis on innovative consumer empowerment tools.

Accenture’s analysis reveals the following top 10 emerging healthcare trends in Canada.

1. Healthcare Clouds. Healthcare clouds will push the industry’s reliance on large monolithic systems to point-of-care systems.
   
   
2. Health Analytics. To reach the next level of quality and innovation in care delivery, practitioners require a comprehensive set of facts—and insights—around healthcare delivery.
   
   
3. New Payment Models. The convergence of health reform, new data availability and access, and the push to lower healthcare costs will drive the shift toward outcomes-based funding in Canada and around the world.
   
   
4. Tablet Computing. Easy-to-use and portable, tablet computers will play a critical role in unlocking clinical adoption of technology such as physician electronic medical records.
   
   
5. mHealth. Mobile apps will become another channel for real-time, patient-provider interaction.
   
   
6. Social Networking. Moving beyond initial trends of connecting and information sharing, the next wave of opportunity will be around patients managing and “curating” healthcare information via social networking sites.
   
   
7. Point-of-Care Diagnostics. Point of care tests will continue to simultaneously drive consumer empowerment and improve care with the ability to provide reliable and “instantaneous” results without the need for a large centralized lab.
   
   
8. Hospital at Home. Looking to control healthcare costs and provide quality, effective care, there is a push to deliver more services within the home for patients whose diagnoses meet certain eligibility requirements.
   
   
9. Regionalization 2.0. The clear need to lower healthcare costs in the wake of global health reform mandates has sparked moves toward the regionalization of healthcare.
   
   
10. Exporting Health. Healthcare organizations outside of Canada are entering new markets— foreign markets in particular—in an attempt to generate new revenue.

From health reform and skyrocketing costs to consumer expectations and technology advances, healthcare in Canada is undergoing transformation. The entire health continuum—providers, governments, public health organizations, agencies, patients and others—is feeling the impact and looking for new solutions.

Accenture works with a wide range of healthcare organizations in Canada and around the world. Our experience reveals that organizations that take the lead in driving change, will observe these trends, and start by asking important questions such as:

• Which trends do you see influencing your organization?
  
  
• Is your organization positioned to be first mover in one of these trend areas?
  
  
• Which trends do you think will have the most impact on your organization in the next two years?
  
  
• What trends do you think best align with your short and long term business objectives?
  
  
• What other healthcare trends are you tracking today?
  
  
• Do you have any concerns about how these trends will affect your organization and its stakeholders?