The future of healthcare is moving out of hospitals and into everyday life. According to the PwC Global Health Report, 70 percent of respondents use some form of health technology monthly — a wearable device, an app or a virtual service. The report shows care shifting toward the home, workplace and digital platforms, with a move away from institution-centered delivery toward continuous, person-centered and predictive models.
Prevention comes to the forefront
PwC’s survey found that 65 percent of respondents prefer a prevention-focused system rather than one centered on treatment. Only 26 percent feel that the basic services of digital health are currently adequate. Episodic care is likely to be replaced by integrated patient journeys that cover prevention, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up as a single continuous process.
Dr. Remete Gergő, PwC Hungary’s health expert, said: “The future of healthcare doesn’t begin in the clinic; it is shaped in the home, the workplace, wearable devices and the world of data. Care is shifting from an institution-centered logic to a person-centered, continuous and predictive mode.”
New settings for care and patient expectations
Although 72 percent of respondents received care in a medical practice over the past year, only 34 percent would choose the clinic as their primary point of care in the future. Routine, follow-up, chronic and preventive services are increasingly being organized in home-near, community, virtual or hybrid formats, while hospitals specialize in complex, acute and resource-intensive interventions.
Artificial intelligence and data as operational infrastructure
Artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare is increasingly evaluated by its impact on patient outcomes and system performance rather than by administrative gains alone. AI helps detect risks, signal early deterioration, prioritize patient pathways and support preventive interventions. This requires an adequate data and security infrastructure that is still missing in many places.
The report introduces the concept of “algorithmic capacity”: system performance is defined not only by numbers of clinicians or beds but by the ability to process data quickly and securely. “In the future, the strongest system will not be the one that collects the most data but the one that turns it into better decisions fastest and most securely. Data become a strategic resource, but they only create real value if managed transparently and safely,” emphasized Dr. Remete Gergő.
Patient pathways, value-based funding and data liquidity
Future health systems will be organized around entire patient journeys, treating prevention, diagnosis and follow-up as a single, coherent process. This approach is especially important given aging populations and the growing burden of chronic and multimorbid patients, and it requires changes in financing. The report argues that value-based care models are inevitable: focus will shift from the number of interventions to outcomes that matter to patients, such as improved health status, prevented deterioration and sustainable health gains.
PwC highlights the need for so-called data liquidity: secure and interpretable flow of health data — from clinical records and imaging systems to payer databases, wearable devices and home monitoring — so that information can be integrated into care processes.
Quality of life over years counted
A related JAMA Network analysis based on WHO data found that people live on average nearly 9.6 years with disease or functional limitation. For this reason, healthcare’s goal will be not only to increase life expectancy but to extend years lived in good health: preserving independence, function, social participation and work capacity. Home and community care, assistive technologies, rehabilitation and digital monitoring all have important roles in this shift.
What this means for Hungary
PwC experts say these global trends point a clear direction for Hungary’s health ecosystem as well: data-driven care organization, digital patient journeys, home-near models and prevention will gain ground. The key challenge in the coming years will be how to reorganize available resources so patients can access appropriate care faster, more simply and more personally.
The transformation is as much about trust and organization as it is about technology: without secure data handling, interoperability and new financing models, the potential benefits will not be realized.
