3 February 2022

The role of health services innovators in the future of health

Driving transformation toward a consumer-centric, data-reliant, technology-forward vision

Article Image - Healthcare innovation

The COVID-19 pandemic provides an opportunity to transform toward the future of health: a future driven by consumer-centricity, data reliance, and new technologies. Learn about the ways health care incumbents can work with health services innovators and their nontraditional expertise and solutions.

Executive summary

WHO will drive the health care industry’s transformation toward a future vision of being consumer-centric, efficient, high-quality, data- and technology-driven, and highly accessible? While some of the industry incumbents—health systems and health plans—will spur some change, Deloitte’s vision of the future of health expects nontraditional entrants into the industry to bring relevant expertise and solutions for the industry’s legacy ills. The entry of major retail and consumer technology companies into the health care industry, improving and disrupting it, is well documented. However, another set of new entrants is also busy transforming the industry in partnership with incumbents and gaining traction in the industry. We call them health services innovators.

To understand these innovators’ perspectives on the future of health, we interviewed CEOs, founders, and other visionary leaders (chief executives) of several health services innovators. We conducted these interviews during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic to understand both the impact of the pandemic and how these companies expect to transform health care.

In a previous set of interviews with 35 CEOs from health systems and health plans, we found out that the industry is shifting toward alternative care settings, stronger consumer engagement, and better use of data and technologies. These shifts can be opportunities for health services innovators who aim to partner with incumbents. Indeed, our innovator company interviewees agree with many elements of our Future of Health vision.

Health services innovator chief executives told us they are:

  • Playing a critical role in a broad-based transformation of health care. They are positioning themselves to fill the gaps created and overlooked (for various reasons) by many health care incumbents.
  • Building capabilities and business models that will allow incumbents to transform the industry. The health service innovator chief executives are strengthening their companies' position in the future by building business models in partnership with incumbents around well-being and care delivery (e.g., digital medicine, sensors for appropriate care), data and platforms (e.g., AI-based predictive analytics platforms), and care enablement (e.g., personalized financing tools, access tools).

The health services innovator chief executives also said that the COVID-19 pandemic will act as an accelerator of change for the industry, and they are already seeing it happen. They said it exposed several broken aspects of the legacy health care system, mainly incoherent technology initiatives and a traditional mindset. They expect the pandemic to accelerate transparency and data interoperability, access and affordability, automation, and analytics.

In contrast, health care incumbent CEOs, who we interviewed in late 2019 (prior to the COVID-19 pandemic), had mixed views on threats from new entrants—both tech and retail giants and health services innovators. Some were worried about them as potential competitors, others dismissed them. However, the aftermath of COVID-19 brings an opportunity for them to play to each other’s strengths. The health services innovators told us that that they see their opportunity as collaborating and improving, not competing with incumbents and disrupting the industry. Incumbents, with their industry expertise, capital, and regulatory expertise, and innovators, with their tech-enabled, data-native, analytics-driven, and consumer-centric approach, together can push the industry toward the future of health.