The research, from Frost & Sullivan, in partnership with Hitachi Europe, research reveals that by 2020 56% of the world’s population will live in urban areas and more than 35 cities globally will grow to become mega cities by 2025.
People over 65 years old will grow from 10.3 million in 2010 (16.6 per cent of total population) to 12.7 million in 2020 (19.4 per cent of the total population). A shift from treatment to prevention with emphasis on predictive diagnostics and constant wellness will see global healthcare spend on treatment reduce from 70% in 2007 to 56% by 2020. With smarter drugs, virtual hospitals, and cyber documents, the healthcare industry is poised for a radical change. Key to this paradigm shift will be innovation targeted toward individual power patients.While patients in the developed world grow increasingly impatient with slow moving regulatory and healthcare provision environments, the developing regions will drive new business models tailored to meeting specific patient needs in novel and cost-effective ways.
