2025 Health IT trends: Emerging technologies, AI remain prominent

Last year was busy for the health information technology sector, with a continued focus on artificial intelligence and a record number of cybersecurity breaches. What can we expect this year? Once again, AHCJ turned to Colin Hung for insight.

Hung, chief marketing officer and editor of Healthcare IT Today, frequently travels to health technology industry conferences to stay abreast of current trends in this space. In 2024, he made it to 53 such meetings, 13 of which were in his home base of Toronto, Canada.

The Healthcare IT Today website has multiple blog posts on health IT predictions for 2025, broken down into sections looking at what could happen in wearable devices and mobile applications, the patient experience, cybersecurity and more.

Here are Hung’s recommended trends to watch:

A “right-sizing” of telehealth

The use of telehealth was artificially inflated during the COVID-19 pandemic and has since been declining as doctors’ offices reopened and many patients wanted to return to the office, according to Hung.

“People have since realized there is a good fit for telehealth, just not everywhere,” he said.

This year, look for telehealth to reach a point where it’s most useful, such as for behavioral health with its shortage of providers, or oncology visits with specialists for patients who live far from their doctors or others for whom mobility is difficult.

Also, look for a continuation of asynchronous options for telehealth, like the ability for patients and providers to use voice texts to communicate. One area Hung would like to see funded by insurers? Telehealth visits for a quick check or to get a prescription refilled, rather than making patients come in for a visit.

Continued use of AI for specific applications

Hospitals and health systems seemed all-in on AI in 2024, creating AI centers to integrate the technology into their operations. Mount Sinai in New York City, Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, and BJC Health System and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis were among those establishing these programs, according to Becker’s Health IT. Multiple health systems also have been hiring chief AI officers.

Last year saw the widespread adoption of AI scribes, ambient clinical listening programs that listen in during a doctor-patient encounter and prepare a summary for patients’ electronic health records. Groups like the American College of Radiology have looked into whether AI scribes are accurate, and found that they reduce administrative burden on physicians. This year, that could expand with platforms that not only generate notes but also select the proper billing codes to submit for insurance payments, Hung said.

A healthy skepticism about AI’s abilities in clinical settings is likely to continue, he added, as it’s not always clear what data was used as a training set for AI programs or what, if any, studies were done to test it. A few technology companies have received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for their AI tools in very specific use cases, such as a program that analyzes chest X-rays to help detect tuberculosis.

AI is also being incorporated into platforms allowing patients to schedule appointments, incorporating information from patients’ electronic health records to match them with the most appropriate provider.

Hospital-at-home programs, remote patient monitoring to endure

Technologies like wireless blood pressure cuffs and other devices that transmit a patient’s vital signs to their medical teams are increasingly being used to allow them to remain or recover at home instead of at the hospital. This is especially helpful since some medical centers are struggling with staffing, according to Hung.

Virtual care and care at home programs are likely to further diversify in the coming years, speakers said during a webinar hosted by Becker’s Healthcare.

Novel technologies and wearables to continue emerging

A smart spoon that tracks calories, fitness watches and rings that track sleep,heart health and more are among the gadgets that have been gaining trust among physicians and the health care community, Hung said. Also look for products that incorporate LiD A R (light detection and ranging), a technology that uses pulsed lasers to measure distances and generate detailed 3-D maps of environments.

LiDAR sensors can help map out large areas. In a health care setting, it can help monitor patient movements, ensuring safety by detecting falls, tracking patient location and alerting staff to potential hazards, according to a blog post from GAO Tek.

It can also be integrated into assistive devices for people with disabilities, such as smart wheelchairs and navigation aids to enhance mobility and independence, and can be used to help track air quality, temperature and humidity levels in health care facilities.

Indiana University Health and Mayo Clinic are employing an AI assistant called Luna in programs that support Alzheimer’s care and detect REM sleep behavioral disorders; it can monitor vital signs like heart rate and breathing, track movement and sense changes in behavior patterns, Hung said.

Cybersecurity, an ever-present focus

Health system ransomware attacks nearly doubled in 2024, affecting more than 1,000 U.S. hospitals, Becker’s Health IT reported. As many as 172 million people may have been impacted, according to a STAT analysis.

The February 2024 cyberattack on Change Healthcare — one of the largest clearinghouses for insurance billing and payments in the country — severely disrupted operations for hospitals, medical offices, and pharmacies nationwide, and put a renewed focus on the importance of good cyber hygiene.

“The one thing that [the breach] proved is how interconnected and delicate the whole health care ecosystem really is,” Hung said. “One organization goes down, and all of a sudden staff and clinicians don’t get paid. That opened the eyes of a lot of people.”

Beyond looking to beef up their security, companies are putting new or renewed emphasis on scrutinizing their technology vendor partners, how vulnerable they are to an attack, and what they are doing to keep data protected. Also, look for a continuing emergence of AI and machine learning tools to help detect abnormal activity in a health system’s network that could be reflective of a breach.