【ZS致盛咨询】2024健康行业未来发展报告-六国调查揭示民众医疗保健需求14页_6mb

2024 ZS Future of Health Report Summary

Core Content

The 2024 ZS Future of Health Report presents insights from a survey of 9,500 healthcare consumers and 1,359 healthcare providers across six countries: the U.S., U.K., Germany, Sweden, Japan, and China. The report highlights shared desires for change in healthcare delivery, despite varying systemic challenges.

Main Observations

• Shared Desire for Change: Across all surveyed countries, individuals and healthcare providers alike express a desire for more accessible, equitable, and affordable healthcare systems.
• Gaps in Healthcare Delivery: There are consistent gaps in how healthcare is delivered, including high costs, long waits, and fragmented care. These issues lead to dissatisfaction and a reluctance to seek care.
• Health Equity and AI: Health equity and the role of AI in healthcare are central to the conversation in 2024. Both are seen as critical for improving the system.
• Consumer Preferences: While most prefer traditional care settings, alternative sites like urgent care, pharmacies, and telehealth are gaining traction, especially among younger and more marginalized populations.
• Trust in Retailers Over Healthcare Companies: U.S. consumers trust retailers like Walmart and CVS more than traditional healthcare companies (pharma, insurance, medtech) to act in their best health interests.
• Chronic Conditions and Healthcare Experience: Individuals with chronic conditions have more negative experiences with the healthcare system, often feeling overwhelmed, alone, and frustrated. However, those with cancer and cardiovascular disease tend to have more positive perceptions.
• Misalignment Between Patients and Providers: Healthcare providers often overestimate how positive patients feel about their interactions. There's a significant gap in perception between what patients experience and what providers believe.
• Role of Partnerships: Collaborative health equity partnerships are seen as a key solution. These involve multiple stakeholders working together to address specific issues affecting underserved populations.

Key Topics and Findings

1. Healthcare Access and Quality

• Barriers to Access: In the U.S. and Germany, cost and access are primary barriers. In the U.K., navigating the system is the biggest challenge.
• Patient Preferences: Pharmacies and urgent care centers are increasingly preferred, especially by those facing frustration with the system.
• Dissatisfaction: Over 75% of individuals in all countries except Japan reported delaying care due to system frustrations.

2. Health Equity Concerns

• Perceived Inequity: Most countries show an increase in individuals who feel the healthcare system is not working fairly for everyone.
• Government Role: Over 76% of individuals in the U.S., U.K., Sweden, Germany, and Japan believe the government should invest more in preventive care to reduce health disparities.
• Provider Perceptions: Providers in the U.S., U.K., and Germany are less likely to believe that health disparities are worsening compared to patients.

3. AI and Digital Health

• AI's Potential: AI is seen as a tool that can help with administrative tasks, patient education, and accelerating diagnoses.
• Trust Issues: Most consumers distrust AI, but familiarity increases acceptance. In the U.S., only 18% of individuals who are not familiar with AI believe it can be effective in healthcare.
• Provider Trust: AI trust varies by market and specialty. U.S. PCPs and neurologists are less trusting of AI than oncologists and cardiologists.
• Building Trust: Developers should focus on using representative data, trustworthy design, and seamless integration into existing workflows to gain provider confidence.

4. Consumer-Provider Partnerships

• Need for Collaboration: There's a clear need for stronger partnerships between patients and providers, with patients wanting more collaborative care.
• Lifestyle Influence: Lifestyle choices are seen as a major factor in health, but individuals who recognize this often don't take proactive steps to improve their health.
• Role of Providers: Providers are seen as essential partners in helping individuals make healthier lifestyle choices.

5. Chronic Conditions and Patient Experience

• Mixed Emotions: Patients with chronic conditions often feel more "cared for" and "grateful" but also more "overwhelmed" and "alone."
• Preference for In-Person Care: Those with severe conditions tend to prefer in-person care over telehealth, suggesting that digital tools may not be sufficient for all patient needs.

Key Recommendations

• Improve Access and Affordability: Address systemic issues like long waits, high costs, and poor coordination to meet consumer expectations.
• Enhance Trust in AI: Focus on transparency, representativeness of data, and ensuring AI tools are seamlessly integrated into clinical workflows.
• Strengthen Health Equity Partnerships: Encourage multi-stakeholder collaborations to address specific disparities and improve care for underserved populations.
• Leverage Retailers for Health Access: Utilize the trust consumers have in retailers to expand healthcare access and delivery through retail-based services.
• Bridge the Perception Gap: Providers need to better understand patient experiences and align their perceptions with actual patient sentiments.

Conclusion

The report emphasizes that the future of healthcare must be accessible, affordable, equitable, connected, and human-centered. Achieving this will require collaboration across the healthcare ecosystem and a focus on addressing both systemic and individual challenges.