Demographic changes, technology advancement, more health choices by women, and expansion of medical tourism will be key issues in the future healthcare industry, an expert predicted.

Mauro F. Guillen, the dean of Cambridge Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge and author of "2030: How Today's Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything," delivered his keynote speech at Medical Korea 2022, which opened on Thursday.

Mauro F. Guillen, the dean of Cambridge Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge, delivers his online keynote speech during Medical Korea 2022 on Thursday.
Mauro F. Guillen, the dean of Cambridge Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge, delivers his online keynote speech during Medical Korea 2022 on Thursday.

Speaking on “Global Healthcare, a New Leap Forward,” Guillen said to predict the future of the healthcare sector, it was necessary to observe the global demographic changes caused by the aging population and declining infertility.

With the global population’s continuous aging, people aged 60 or more will own most of the world’s wealth and lead vibrant lives, which will boost healthcare services for these people, he said.

However, the decline of the working-age population will significantly impact state financing, which could make it difficult to offer new healthcare services, he noted.

Thus, technologies such as AI, metaverse, and 3-D printing will reduce medical costs and boost the efficiency of healthcare, he emphasized.

Guillen also forecasts that as the demand for healthcare services for rich and aged people grows, medical tourism services will grow about 400 percent in the next five years.

More people are looking for better medical services with lower costs, and healthcare services are specialized from region to region.

Guillen also paid attention to the faster pace of women’s wealth accumulation than men’s.

With a greater purchasing power of women, women will make more decisions in healthcare services, he said. As women are more likely to spend money on healthcare than men, he added that this tendency could be good news for the healthcare industry.

“There will be big changes in the medical service sector in the next several years,” Guillen said. “To predict the sector, we should pay attention to changing demographics, improving the efficiency of medical technologies, vitalization of medical tourism, and enhanced decision power by women.”

He also emphasized that the Covid-19 pandemic significantly impacted the healthcare service industry.

“Covid-19 is a big trend in healthcare. Although the pandemic is ending, we still cannot ignore it,” Guillen said. He added that the pandemic brought many innovations, including shifting healthcare service delivery to digital platforms.

“As a result, we learned how to prepare for a future pandemic and how to accelerate vaccine development. What we’ve learned in the past two years will greatly help the future healthcare industry,” he said.

Guillen also noted that Korean companies with high competency would play an important role in creating global innovations. “Korea will play a crucial role in advancing global healthcare,” he added.

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