Mature health markets around the world are shifting focus from acute care and chronic disease treatment to proactive prevention, population health, and primary healthcare models. This comes as the world faces a shortage of health workers—the World Health Organization projects a shortfall of 11 million workers by 2030, and the European Union faces an aging doctor population. Long waiting times for non-urgent referrals continue to frustrate patients.
Preventive care can help address these challenges in the long term, especially as AI advances and patient engagement increases. While plenty of countries have robust preventive care programs within their primary care system, there is still work to do—only five of 20 high-income European countries have systematic primary prevention activities within hospitals for health interventions and to help curb future readmissions. It also requires a shift in mindset and culture; Asia is moving away from a paternalistic model and increasing engagement to help encourage shared decision-making and deeper relationships between patients and providers.
Now is the time to prioritize prevention for long-term financial and structural stability. Four key steps can help healthcare systems, regardless of organization size or system structure.
1. Improve clinician cross-training and information access
Even as healthcare trains more doctors to meet upcoming shortages, it’s not guaranteed they’ll be able to meet current primary care needs. Cross-training clinicians is one way to alleviate the workforce shortage and support a team-based approach to care prevention. The United Kingdom is placing more responsibilities on nurses, taking some of the burden off of doctors and underscoring the need for evidence-based resources that can align multidisciplinary teams and support complex patient needs.
Systems can also support clinician needs by enabling local healthcare management. The Italian health system (Servizio Sanitario Nazionale, SSN) introduced a law in 2024 to broaden the autonomy of regions in several policy areas, including healthcare delivery. This can help regions address patient needs in a flexible way that best supports their populations, rural communities, and workforce availability.
2. Empowering patients in their care
Encouraging patients to take an active role in their care can help fill gaps and encourage preventive care measures between visits, especially for patients in rural locations. Digital health tools are increasingly used to help manage chronic conditions like hypertension or diabetes, and can support telehealth and digital strategies. Additionally, in a world with access to health misinformation and AI chatbots, having evidence-based education on hand can support preventive care measures. Patients can feel more empowered and knowledgeable, and it can help encourage proactive routine screenings, improve adherence to care plans and therapeutic treatments, and improve trust in healthcare organizations.
