Well, any forecast has to include a look at The 2024 Old Farmer’s Almanac. For 2024, it looks like a winter warmer than normal, summer with normal temperatures and a little less rain and temperatures the hottest late-June and July. Hurricane watch (I will talk about that later) and an October that is cooler and dryer than normal.
News on the hurricane front is that forecasters are calling for our current El Niño to fade away toward late spring to eventually be replaced by a La Niña which is not good news for us. A La Niña means less strong upper level winds and the potential for hurricanes is greater. Let’s hope this part of the forecast is wrong!
The economy. The Federal Open Market Committee just met and the economic news is good. “Recent indicators suggest that economic activity has been expanding at a solid pace. Job gains have moderated since early last year but remain strong, and the unemployment rate has remained low. Inflation has eased over the past year but remains elevated.” It appears that the economic stimulus provided by the federal government over the last two years has allowed the economy to bounce gently and move steadily forward.
Healthcare. Let us just talk about a few items. Telemedicine will continue to flourish. The discovery of more and more appropriate uses makes this technology valuable (needless to say, the march toward digital transformation will be in lockstep).
As much as many would like to see it go away, the move to value will continue with many new market influencers (health tech start-ups) figuring out how to deliver that value (with or without hospital help).
Lastly, one area that I am going to keep my eyes on is the growth of personalized medicine. Advances in genomics, precision medicine, and AI will drive personalized treatment approaches. Targeted therapies based on individual genetic profiles will become more common, leading to better outcomes and reduced adverse effects.
I think that 2024 will be an amazing year in terms of the advancement of healthcare. And, yes, somewhere in this whirlwind of activity will come the divisive rhetoric now associated with political campaigns. Next month we will look at the differences in policy positions taken by Democrats and Republicans as they talk about healthcare; pretty dramatic differences.
