Digital Capabilities & Emerging Tech Hold The Keys to Surviving Healthcare’s “Silver Tsunami”

The rapid growth of America’s senior population presents unique challenges for the healthcare industry. There are more than 56 million Americans currently over the age of 65, and approximately 85% of them have at least one chronic condition. Caring for these seniors accounts for more than one-third of all medical expenditures in the U.S. and nearly 40% of all in-patient hospital encounters. But the real challenge is that there will be 45% more 60-90 year-olds by 2033 than there are now, and 30% fewer workers to support them.

Meeting this surge in demand with our current systems would be challenging even under ideal circumstances—but post-COVID attrition of nurses, physicians, and other skilled caregivers makes it clear that there is no hiring solution to fix the issue. A radical transformation in how care is delivered is necessary. Fortunately, emerging technologies like healthcare AI, advances in digital experiences, and evolving care best practices could help health systems dramatically scale their ability to provide care to older adults without the need to significantly increase their workforce.

The digital senior

Seniors might initially seem like an unlikely target for new digital initiatives. However, new research is putting to rest many of the preconceptions about older adults and the use of technology. Recent surveys have found that today’s seniors are more comfortable with technology than ever, with more than 81% of older adults having used a smartphone as of 2021. Compare that to 2013, when the same survey found that just 13% of older adults had used one.

This increased familiarity and expertise with digital tools means that technologies such as virtual visits, asynchronous messaging, and online scheduling are becoming viable tools to dramatically improve the health experiences of America’s seniors. These technologies will increasingly become essential for improving the capacity of health systems’ existing workforce to treat older adults, just as they are now doing for other digitally native populations.

However, the use of digital technologies to improve care experiences for older adults will also require fine-tuning and specialization, both to meet the level of comfort older adults have with technology and to address the unique healthcare needs of that population. Health systems with tried-and-true digital health programs should take a hard and thoughtful look at their existing capabilities and tools to determine whether they are not just adequate but ideal for meeting the needs of this fast-growing population; in instances where they fall short, careful adjustment or augmentation may be necessary to ensure they can actually deliver on the efficiency, experience, and ROI health systems need.

Smarter, not harder

Although still a nascent field, healthcare AI may also hold the key to meeting the growing demands for elder care as well as the challenges of maintaining supply in the face of staffing shortages.

First and foremost, the widespread adoption of healthcare AI—especially in tasks like clinical documentation and administrative review tasks—will make it possible to dramatically improve the efficiency with which an individual clinician or skilled nurse can deliver care. According to a 2022 meta-analysis of PubMed research, clinicians spend as much as 4.5 hours a day completing EHR-related documentation tasks. The adoption of ambient voice AI could make it possible for such tasks to be largely or completely automated, freeing up considerable capacity and allowing more patients to receive the same level and standard of care without needing to expand the existing workforce. The same could be true for tasks traditionally handled by skilled nurses or back-office staff, including prior authorization, billing, and even complex care coordination across large care teams. 

But above and beyond just expanding capacity, AI could also make it possible to completely re-imagine many healthcare interactions. Caring for patients with multiple chronic conditions in particular places considerable burdens on the individual patient to schedule and coordinate visits across different specialists, healthcare organizations, and locations—many of which will present patients with duplicative scheduling, documentation, and onboarding tasks of their own.

The adoption of generative healthcare AI—a category of artificial intelligence algorithms that generate new outputs based on the data they have been trained on—also offers enormous opportunities for helping older adults take a more active role in their own care by simplifying or automating patient tasks such as scheduling, finding transportation, and managing billing responsibilities.

Navigating the path ahead

Like any new capability, the adoption of new technologies and systems catering to older adults requires careful analysis and strategy if real ROI is to be realized, whether that be in the form of improved experience, improved capacity, or greater revenue attribution.

Many of the digital capabilities that might be brought to bear to square the gap between supply challenges and growing demand already have a mature solution market and clearly established use cases. For health systems looking to use asynchronous messaging, virtual care, and other capabilities to meet the care requirements of older adults, the first step is to identify meaningful use cases and align potential ROI with larger organizational needs. Gaining an understanding of the vendor and solution landscape is also essential, as is learning from the experiences of other organizations that have already found success with these use cases. Solution marketplaces can provide a valuable tool for identifying market leaders and finding partners with experience working with older adult populations and health systems similar in size and nature to your own.

For emerging capabilities like healthcare AI, the path forward is both more challenging and potentially more rewarding for both clinicians and patients. Healthcare AI adoption is still in its infancy, and there are few tried-and-true use cases for health systems to turn to. Industry collaboration will be essential for vetting potential use cases, establishing best practices, and laying the organizational and practical framework for adopting ambient voice AI, generative AI, and other forms of these technologies. At the same time, health systems can’t afford to adopt a “wait and see” approach if they are to derive the full benefit from AI, and so it will be important to examine and vet new developments in the field as use cases and best practices begin to emerge or run the risk of falling behind market competitors and disruptors.

The twin crises of staffing challenges and a rapidly aging population present a major challenge for the healthcare industry—but it is far from the first challenge, and past experiences have proven that health systems can act quickly and decisively to meet the needs of their staff, their organizations, and (most importantly) their patients. Through innovation, leveraging new technologies, and industry-wide collaboration, the same can be true of the “silver tsunami”—but only if health systems are ready, willing, and able to act.

About Scott Cullen

An experienced leader in both clinical care and driving strategic success, Scott Cullen, M.D., brings decades of experience in care model transformation, population health, and experience-centered design. As a former primary care physician, he is well aligned with AVIA’s vision for digital transformation in the health systems of the future—one that combines digital health innovation, clinical outcomes, and equitable and effective healthcare experiences.

Cullen also brings a wealth of experience building and leading strategic advisory practices, having most recently served as Managing Director for Accenture’s Health Provider Industry vertical and as the company’s Chief Clinical Innovation Officer. He also built the Advisory Services practice for Valence Health, during which time the company won a “#1 Best in KLAS” award.

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