On the cusp of a new year, the healthcare landscape is undergoing unprecedented transformations, driven by technological advancements, evolving patient needs, and a global staffing crisis that has reshaped the way we view and approach healthcare.
To shed light on the anticipated trends and innovations that will shape the healthcare industry in 2024, leading experts from across Wolters Kluwer Health offer their expectations for compliance, primary care, digital health tech, and of course, AI in 2024. Their predictions offer a compelling narrative of what’s ahead and guide us toward a more informed, connected, and resilient future in healthcare.
Artificial intelligence
Top 4 impact-drivers for generative AI in 2024
2024 will be a watershed year for generative AI, particularly in healthcare. Look for solutions emerging in four key areas in 2024: lightening administrative burdens across the hospital; helping sharpen clinicians' decision-making; boosting the efficiency of medical researchers; and helping the next generation of healthcare workers ramp up proficiency with smarter learning tools.
- Stacey Caywood, CEO of Wolters Kluwer Health
Generative AI is here to stay in future clinical decision support apps
The adoption of artificial intelligence in the clinical setting will continue to evolve, particularly with generative AI for clinical decision support, as healthcare organizations begin piloting and evaluating these solutions for responsible and safe patient care applications. Generative AI has the potential to help clinicians make decisions more accurately and efficiently at the point of care.
- Peter Bonis, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Wolters Kluwer Health
The primary bottlenecks for AI adoption in 2024? Existing workflows
The capabilities of AI will far outpace the scaled-up adoption of AI applications, which are constrained by workflow, competing priorities and economic considerations driving uptake. We expect most of the uptake to be dominated by existing workflow applications such as EMRs and related services like documentation, although operational applications such as nurse scheduling, revenue cycle management, and prior authorization will also get an AI boost.
- Peter Bonis, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Wolters Kluwer Health
Building trust into healthcare GenAI: content quality is the critical driver in 2024
The global consultancy McKinsey has said that Generative AI “has the potential to reimagine the healthcare industry in new and exciting ways.” Leveraging GenAI with clinical decision support could provide a way for providers to make faster and better decisions. We predict as healthcare explores GenAI and patient care, the source and vetting of the underlying content will become a key factor in the speed in which it is deployed. It is said that innovation happens at the speed of trust – in healthcare that trust is based on the quality of the underlying content and its evidence base.
- Greg Samios, President & Chief Executive Officer of Clinical Effectiveness at Wolters Kluwer Health
Readying health data for AI prime time
Health organizations are making it a strategic priority to extract more value from the volumes of data they're moving to the cloud. One big health data target in 2024? Training AI models on all that data. To make it happen however, they'll first need to untangle a rat's nest of messy data. In the race to build data-rich AI models in '24, many will turn to AI-driven terminology tech that speeds normalization of data, making it ready for prime-time.
- Brian Laberge, Solutions Engineer, Health Language at Wolters Kluwer Health
The AI has to be right: the role of AI in nursing education
In 2024, we will see students and professors continue to experiment with the use of AI in education. Both students and educators are looking for ways to improve the traditional workflows of the classroom. By leveraging AI, faculty can reduce some of the workload burden with development of lesson plans, and more efficiently testing student knowledge and adjusting learning accordingly. For students, the proper use of AI can give them access to trusted learning materials in an easier to find, and digestible, conversational format.
Education companies will act as fast movers since they are already dealing with time-pressed students – who are also savvy consumers –who expect to be engaged and leverage personalized study resources. For medical and nursing education, the AI has to be right – students must graduate clinically competent and confident, and they cannot learn from content that is not evidence-based, current and accurate. While there are many discussions and pilots happening currently, 2024 will be the year we see both of these groups push their institutions for real-life implementations.
- Julie Stegman, Vice President, Health Learning & Practice at Wolters Kluwer Health
Compliance and health plans
State boards of pharmacy scramble to adopt new USP standards in 2024
Now that major revisions in USP 795, 797, and 800 standards are now in effect, state boards of pharmacy around the country have their work cut out for them in 2024 in terms of developing realistic and actionable policies and plans for enforcement. As state boards adopt and develop state-specific enforcement approaches, other accreditation bodies have already announced intent to enforce the compounding standards. This will create a transitional period of inconsistent enforcement around the country. Still, compounding pharmacies should maintain their momentum to be prepared for accreditation surveys and for when their state board announces changes.
- Annie Lambert, PharmD, Clinical Program Manager for Clinical Surveillance & Compliance at Wolters Kluwer Health
More audits and scrutiny are coming for MA plans
With CMS restarting the RADV audit and an increased frequency of OIG audits anticipated, Medicare Advantage plans shift into high gear to ready up for increased government scrutiny by way of audits in 2024. This means standing up dedicated teams of well-versed and experienced audit pros to respond to likely regulatory audits such as RADV, OIG, etc. Even with legal challenges and settlements already underway, the audit train has left the station and is picking up steam in '24. Plans that aren’t ready or are ill-prepared stand to face stiff penalties.
- Melissa James, CPC, CPMA, CRC, Senior Consultant in Health Language at Wolters Kluwer Health
CMS ties dollars to DEI and outcomes
This coming year will put an expanded focus on DEI by healthcare payers not just because it is the right thing to do, it’s also now about the bottom line. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) framework for health equity will put a financial focus on value-based care and ensuring that the gap in inequities is identified and closed. We predict that payers will be looking at solutions that support diversity while also offering ways to enhance patient engagement and meet people where they are to support them appropriately.
- Allison Combs, Head of Product – Payer Segment, Clinical Effectiveness at Wolters Kluwer Health
Nursing and primary care
Saving Nursing in 2024: health systems investing in young nurses get ahead
In 2024, healthcare organizations will need to invest in resources and training to support graduate nurses throughout the first 2 to 3 years of their employment to retain them at the bedside. While some of the top nursing schools are driving toward graduating more practice-ready nurses, not all are experts when entering the workforce and may take some time to become confident in most situations. As a result, new nurse graduates are at the highest risk of leaving healthcare organizations within the first few years of joining the workforce.
To retain new nurses and decrease turnover, investment in training through nurse residency programs, preceptors, mentor/resource nurses, and point of care, clinical decision support resources are needed to support new nurses and demonstrate they are valued by the organization. Academia and practice settings will need to partner to identify the competencies really needed for beginner nurses.
- Anne Woods, DNP, RN, CRNP, ANP-BC, AGACNP-BC, FAAN, Chief Nurse at Wolters Kluwer Health
2024: the end of the primary nurse model? Innovative team approaches chart a way forward
In 2024, healthcare organizations will need to implement innovative care models to ensure safe practice and optimum patient outcomes. Healthcare organizations can no longer rely on staffing ratios alone to provide safe, quality patient care. There are no longer enough RNs at the bedside to provide a primary nurse model. Innovative staffing models that follow a team approach and consider patient acuity, nurse competency, and an adequate number of support staff will be needed to provide safe patient care and optimized patient outcomes. Healthcare organizations will need to educate nurses and support staff on delegation, scope of practice, and working in a team model of care.
- Anne Woods, DNP, RN, CRNP, ANP-BC, AGACNP-BC, FAAN, Chief Nurse at Wolters Kluwer Health
Nursing schools will bring their curriculums into the future
In 2024, nursing college and university programs are going to have to make a choice—will they address the issues facing new nurses entering the chaos that is healthcare today, or will they continue to do what they have been doing for the past few decades. When focusing more on what is actually happening in
healthcare, then students will learn how to think clinically, relying just as much on simulation in the classroom as the instructors' PowerPoint slides and lecture. When a school decides that they will address these critical needs in healthcare, the faculty will have an improved workload and job satisfaction since nursing faculty are nurses (obviously) and their heart is more in line with what is happening in healthcare than focusing on building lesson plans.
The future of nursing and healthcare really is in the hands of each individual nursing program. Will you continue the same old path, or will you allow students to learn in a way that not only helps them, but also nursing faculty find meaning and relevance—ultimately saving patients’ lives.
- Tim Bristol, PhD, RN, CNE, ANEF, FAAN, Director of Strategic Planning, NurseThink, at Wolters Kluwer Health
Mental health care is the new primary care
The COVID-19 pandemic saw a sharp rise in people of all ages seeking mental and behavioral health treatment. The result? Primary care is now also mental healthcare. This demand has strained the healthcare system and the healthcare workforce. While there is a focus on ways to bring more providers into the system, that may take years. We predict healthcare organizations will begin to look for solutions that will enable their staff to meet this demand and offer support for diagnosis and the titration of drugs.
- Julie Frey, Head of Product – Provider Segment, Clinical Effectiveness at Wolters Kluwer Health
Beyond analytics
In digital health tech, chronic care management & remote patient monitoring leap forward through more personalized engagement
The healthcare digital technology market has been dominated the past few years by solutions for virtual care. While that market settles, there are other emerging opportunities that we see growing – chronic care management and remote patient monitoring. For these to reach their full potential will require strategies to ensure the patient and/or caregiver is engaged in and educated about their care. As vendors look to explore these markets, they need to examine integrating solutions that can provide personalized education and engagement.
- Chris Sullivan, Vice President and General Manager of the Commercial Segment for Clinical Effectiveness at Wolters Kluwer Health
Analytics and data deliver direct impacts for patients and populations in 2024
Healthcare providers have long required data that can help drive better outcomes and power their institutional goals. But, despite years of effort and significant cost, too much data remains locked away or in silos; making it difficult to synthesize insights and take action. Unlocking the right data- at the right moment- could enable healthcare institutions to better personalize their care, improve treatment and raise performance.
We predict that new tech (Generative AI, Prompt Engineering, etc.), coupled with the right data sets (and workflows) will allow organizations to dramatically move the needle on getting patients to the correct first- or second-line therapy, keeping patients engaged in their care plans, and achieving successful
outcomes. We further believe that health care organizations of all sizes will look to solutions that can provide measurable and valuable analytics across the organization that will support both insight and action and help them support population health initiatives.
- Yaw Fellin, Vice President of Product and Solutions for Clinical Effectiveness at Wolters Kluwer Health