Megatrends concerning the Swiss health care delivery system

A group of young researchers from the Emerging Health Care Leaders program of NRP 74* has produced a report on five megatrends that have a large potential influence on the health care delivery system in Switzerland. The report also discusses how these megatrends have evolved in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic:

• Socio-demographic shifts: It is currently unknown how the pandemic will affect socio-demographic composition of the population, such as aging- and migration rates. However, currently reported annual COVID-19-related deaths do not point to a long-term and health care system-relevant change.
• Broadening the meaning of "health": The pandemic is expected to further accelerate the trend toward identification of new patient populations, entry of tech companies into the healthcare market, and emergence of new health professions and research fields.
• Empowered patients / caregivers / service users: The pandemic has strengthened the role of informed, knowledgeable, and autonomous patients and will continue to shape the future doctor-patient relationship due to the wide availability of health information.
• Digitalization in healthcare: Digitalization has seen a further boost in the pandemic, accompanied by discussion around the issues of data use, privacy, and interoperability.
• Emergence of new models of care: The pandemic has strengthened new forms of interaction between patients and providers, integrated care and interprofessional collaboration, and the importance of primary care overall.

The original report will be submitted to the journal “Public Health Reviews”. * Michael Deml, Katharina Jungo, Maud Maessen, Andrea Martani and Agne Ulyte