We often believe healthcare is improving from one generation to the next. But Eyal Zimlichman, MD, Chief Transformation Officer and Chief Innovation Officer at Sheba Medical Center in Israel, is not so sure that will always be the case — unless we do things differently.
“Healthcare is on a train headed to a brick wall. We need to move that brick wall or find a way to avert the crash before it happens,” he told an audience at the C3 Summit in New York City in September 2024, where he spoke with Cure CEO Seema Kumar. He then shared his optimism about the future of healthcare and steps we can take as a global community to keep the train moving forward safely and productively.
Key to these efforts is the Future of Health (FOH) initiative, an international endeavor which Zimlichman helped launch in 2018 and now co-chairs. FOH is a proactive community of senior leaders from major healthcare systems and organizations from around the world. FOH members from more than 35 institutions exchange ideas, share challenges and influence broad-based global policy and legislative change. Work produced by FOH is published in the New England Journal of Medicine for anyone to access freely.
Zimlichman also founded and directs Sheba’s ARC (Accelerate, Redesign, Collaborate) Innovation Center, which brings players in digital medicine at Sheba together with external partners on a quest to accelerate change in healthcare services on a global scale.
“FOH has a vision to improve healthcare at a population level, but vision is not enough. We created ARC to ensure that vision actually happens,” he explained. To promote innovation in healthcare, new ARC partnerships are being forged around the world, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Ottawa, London, Melbourne, Bahrain and Belgium.
Here are six ways Zimlichman said we can improve the quality, safety and productivity of healthcare delivery in the future.
1. Leverage healthcare innovation to promote economic growth
“Not only can innovation bring funds to healthcare institutions themselves, but innovation can serve as an economic engine of growth because it has a ripple effect on communities,” said Zimlichman. “When innovation begins, startup companies create jobs that are critical for the community and generate revenue.”
2. Expand the focus on digital health
Zimlichman contended that digital health is the main transformation vehicle that will have the most impact on healthcare 10 years from now. “This is where we need to put our efforts if we're looking to achieve large scale transformation,” he asserted.
3. AI will change how healthcare is provided
“Artificial intelligence is the number-one game-changing solution that will gradually change how we provide healthcare,” Zimlichman noted.
AI supports other efforts such as precision medicine, enabling physicians to match patients with the most effective therapies and identify drugs that may not be a good fit for certain individuals due to the risk of side effects. In addition to enhancing care, this approach can also reduce costs by providing patients with the best treatments from the get-go. Augmented reality also uses AI and can make operations more effective by improving surgical navigation and reducing the length of procedures.
Zimlichman believes that 10 years from now, AI-based avatars may address 95 percent of our health needs. Avatars may be able to make a diagnosis and prescribe treatments, and not need to see patients in person.
“The whole pathway of what happens in diagnosis, treatment and follow-up is going to look very different,” he predicted.
4. Telemedicine is just beginning
The use of telemedicine surged during the pandemic and became a part of mainstream medicine and care systems.
“This is not the end of telemedicine. This is just the beginning,” said Zimlichman. “Where can we take telemedicine next? How do we turn the home environment into a health environment? We spend more and more time at home as we get older, and that environment needs to support our health needs.
Zimlichman explained that smart homes should become smart health homes in the next few years.
5. Revise the notion of hospital care
“Hospitals are a very old notion. The idea that we pull patients together under one roof was something that was true maybe 200 years ago,” said Zimlichman. “Hospitals will not disappear, but they should be used to treat only the most complex patients.”
Most patient care can be done on an outpatient basis or even from the patient’s home, and more surgeries are being done at ambulatory surgical centers. Zimlichman also contended that hospitals should be designed like airports to make it easier for patients and visitors to navigate.
6. Promote international collaboration
Self-sufficient healthcare organizations that are not interested in transformation are not sustainable.
“We need organizations that are successful today but also realize that without change, they will not be successful five to 10 years from now. Every large company needs to have that foresight to look ahead, to always be on the cutting edge, and healthcare is the same,” said Zimlichman. “Organizations must work together to establish an innovation capacity to build new solutions, and then initiate large-scale implementation across the global ecosystem. Without global transformation, innovation will only lead to incremental change.