![]() ![]() Not only will services be delivered differently, so will access to providers, likely spanning national boundaries and demanding changes in our traditional approach to professional regulation and reimbursement. Indeed developing countries have accelerated the pace of innovation in mobile health solutions, using high volume low cost production of smart phones to bypass the costly land-line infrastructure that is gradually being abandoned in the developed world. Widespread digitization of health services, coupled with an explosion in consumer-oriented wearable devices, point-of-care diagnostics, and social media has created the opportunity to deliver services in a very different way-e-consults, tele-homecare, self-care robots, smart homes are all leveraging advances in technology re-purposed to fill needed gaps in providing more accessible, equitable consumer-oriented services. Third, we are finally tipping point on the innovation adoption curve for incorporating health information technologies in healthcare. Indeed, it is not healthcare alone that is being transformed by the demands of this generation but “the silver economy” is emerging to cater to the needs of the “new gen senior.” ![]() Both the sheer number, estimated to be 20.1% of the population in 2024, and the unprecedented level of education and wealth of this cohort will create a demand for patient empowerment and partnership in healthcare and in engagement in healthier lifestyles. Second, the greying of the baby boom generation will create a very different kind of consumer of healthcare services. These financial pressures provide impetus for transformational change and an increasing pull for cutting edge research that can pioneer innovations in health system delivery which can lower costs, improve patient experience, quality of care, and the health of the population. The escalation in costs is driven by greater consumption of medical technology, including diagnostic imaging and pharmaceuticals, and by increasing prices of these services and products. There are major forces, worldwide, that are shifting the way in which health systems will operate, how health services will be delivered, and the role that health services and policy research will play in this emerging frontier.įirst, there is the crushing, and unsustainable escalation in health system costs, exceeding $3.0 trillion in the United States in 2014, and $219 billion in Canada in 2015, accounting for 17.5% of the GDP in the US and 10.9% in Canada.
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