PwC recently shared its Global Health Report, looking at the main forces reshaping healthcare in 2026 and beyond.
The report points to a clear shift: healthcare is moving from reactive, hospital-centred care towards more predictive, decentralised and consumer-driven models.
AI is one of the main drivers. PwC describes it less as a standalone tool and more as future infrastructure for healthcare, embedded into workflows, risk monitoring, diagnostics, scheduling and care coordination. But the trust gap is still significant: only 24% of healthcare leaders say they are confident in privacy regulation compliance, and only 19% say the same about AI regulation compliance.
Another major theme is data liquidity. Health systems already generate huge amounts of data through clinical records, wearables, home monitoring, apps and patient-reported outcomes, but much of it still sits in silos. PwC argues that the next step is not just collecting more data, but making existing data usable, secure and interoperable across the system. The cybersecurity gap is also striking: only 2% of healthcare leaders report having fully implemented cyber resilience actions.
The consumer side is also changing quickly. According to PwC, 70% of people now use health technology such as wearables, apps or virtual services monthly, and 65% want a healthcare system built more around prevention than treatment. At the same time, while 72% received care in a doctor’s office in the past year, only 34% say this would be their preferred setting in the future.
The report also covers the rise of value-based care and the growing focus on healthspan, not just lifespan. Globally, healthspan now lags lifespan by 9.6 years, which makes prevention, ageing in place, remote monitoring and integrated care models increasingly important.
Overall, it’s a useful read for anyone following the intersection of AI, digital health, consumer behaviour and healthcare system redesign.
www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues...