What will impact life science and health in 2024? Six trends we’re predicting that could transform our industry
SUMMARY
In 2024, LINUS is tracking six emerging trends and patterns we believe will impact our industry.
From a prominent transformation in innovation to the eroding pillars of trust, we predict that this year will be marked by an overdue need for adjustments to systemic norms.
Over the last few years, our team has identified several emerging trends — from home being the center of health to the health-tech consumer who drives the market — that help inform our work and make a lasting impact for our clients.
At the beginning of each new year, the strategists at LINUS assess and identify the patterns, forces and trends that will drive change for life science, health, and wellness in 2024. From accelerated innovation to the importance of real-world evidence to the eroding pillar of trust, here are key trends that we’ll be advising our clients on as they impact the scientific community and beyond.
1. Accelerating innovation from lab to clinic
For the last few years, COVID and infectious disease research has driven drug approvals, medical innovation, and changed the industry's expectations for healthcare advancements. It has also redefined our expectations for how quickly innovation moves through the pipeline, from bench research to clinical approval. In the next few years, we will see a refocus on breakthrough innovation and a shift in the R&D process. Last year, the FDA approved over 50 novel therapeutics — signaling a diversification of the medical toolbox. Goldman Sachs announced their move into the biotech space, raising a $650 million fund for life science startups. This approval spree and influx of investments signals a departure from conventional approaches that defined innovation over the last few years. The exploration in therapeutic frontiers such as oncology, neurology, and women's health will continue to accelerate.
The rapid translation of cutting-edge discoveries into tangible medical solutions is not only expediting the pace of advancements but also fostering a more dynamic and responsive healthcare ecosystem. With the FDA moving faster, we predict a direct impact on the drug development pipeline — collaborations are happening faster, deals are being signed more quickly, and innovation is being realized — all to the benefit of patients. Not only are we seeing therapies being repurposed, but the value of these curative therapies are changing. In 2024, expect to see a prominent transformation in the trajectory of medical progress.
2. Trust: to repair it, be human
As the old adage goes, “trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair” — and in 2024 we are squarely in the forever phase. Trust, as an integral value to a productive society, has eroded before our eyes — from technologies to institutions. In the US, positive views and public trust for scientists is declining — and that narrative doesn’t stop there, with headline after headline pointing to various breaches of trust. The rhetoric continues to steer toward the importance of rebuilding this trust via humanized experiences. As interactions become increasingly digital, increasingly automated, and increasingly online, people yearn for a simpler approach: authentic and empathetic connections. Humanizing customer experiences involves not just meeting functional needs but understanding and addressing emotional ones. Our reliance on chatbots and automation tools has broken relationships.
While in the past the focus was on how we got here, 2024 promises to be a year that requires organizations and leaders to look forward and begin to implement change. Transparency in communication and thoughtfulness are key to rebuilding this trust: from doctors, to policymakers, to corporations. In 2024, expect to see serious reckoning with trust. And to reckon with that trust, let’s be human. For real.
3. Ditching the performance data — and tech?
The proliferation of wearables has driven the escalation of data streamed from our wrists to our performance dashboards. But for these digital health tools to succeed, that data needs to provide direction — and more and more we’re seeing these technologies fall short of synthesizing raw data. Even elite athletes are ditching the performance data and going analog — training based on how they feel rather than metrics given to them on a feedback loop of constant optimization. This skepticism and concern about data privacy and security contributes to a rising wave of apathy toward technology. Consumers are switching to dumb phones, the US government is probing into antitrust laws, and several social media platforms are seeing users decline — especially among Gen Z. This growing sense of disillusionment underscores that technology should be happening for people rather than to people.
So how can companies stand out and earn trust? To rekindle trust and re-engage a tech-weary audience, tech companies need to recognize that re-examining data utilization is paramount, and embracing authenticity just might mean positioning beyond the industry-standard and breaking away from the sea of sameness. In 2024, expect to see a recalibration on how health tech consumers utilize their data — or not.
4. The contradiction of multiomics
Multiomics is widely regarded as key to understanding the complexity of biology, but can we really align on a singular definition of multiomics? Despite its recognition as an essential tool and the term being normalized in scientific discourse, the depth of understanding and the practical integration of technologies remains a challenge. While nearly every platform today claims to deliver “multiomic” data, what does this mean for the average scientist and patient? Does more data mean better understanding? Unfortunately today, the answer is no. Despite the advancement and promise of AI analysis tools, data integration and interpretation remain a challenge.
As we continue to realize the evolving landscape of multiomics, there is a growing need to bridge the gap between its conceptual significance and the practical integration of these multi-dimensional datasets. Without rigorous experimental design, robust metadata collection, and more unified data sources, multiomics will remain as enigmatic as it is today. The tool developers and teams that will win in this space in 2024 will be those that tackle these challenges - through new platforms, workflows, and approaches not yet seen. In 2024, expect to see utilization and actionable insights (not just oceans of data) that can be translated to real-world clinical tools. And, if we’re lucky, maybe we’ll see new terminology introduced that is more powerful and appropriate.
5. There’s no place like home for health
For years, health at home has been a regular discourse within the walls of LINUS. Retailers like CVS are becoming the new primary care offices, increasing access to care like never before. Adults who are aging want to remain independent and do so at home, not at a medical facility. All of this adds to the trend that we’re moving more toward prevention rather than a reactive approach to health that responds only to illnesses. In 2024 we expect to see a double-down in investment toward how hospitals and major corporations can extend their care into the home or how we may introduce pre-emptive elderly care earlier in the pipeline.
Improvements to telehealth platforms, enhanced data security, and expansion of virtual support communities are essential to staying ahead of this evolution of care and ensuring both patient safety and compliance. In 2024, expect to see the trend of health at home move from a fad to a cornerstone.
6. Patient at the center
In the evolving landscape of clinical research, there is a shift towards prioritizing patients and real-world evidence (RWE) and data. If clinical data is king in terms of fundraising and deal making, what does this mean for the evolution in the decentralization of clinical trials? This expanding recognition highlights the importance of harnessing real-world evidence to validate and enhance the outcomes observed in clinical settings. The success of securing funding is increasingly reliant on a company’s ability to acquire comprehensive real-world data that reflects the broader patient experience. We’re seeing this in programs such as Medicare’s openness to use RWE to evaluate therapeutic options to the Mount Sinai Million Health Discovery program enhancing the diversity of genomic data. In late 2023, CMS published their updated framework to advance health equity - tying fiscal impact to value-based care and outcomes.
This shift signals a patient-centric approach and fosters a more holistic understanding of treatment outcomes in diverse populations. In 2024, expect to see the pursuit for outcomes-driven, real-world data shape the trajectory of systemic healthcare advancements — from clinical research to infrastructure frameworks to treatment.