Healthcare Themes for 2025: The Realities of AI, Smarter Medication Management, and the Changing Regulatory Landscape

A few months into 2025, it’s clear that AI is fundamentally altering how care is delivered and managed. It’s no longer pie-in-the-sky promises—we are now seeing the proliferation of boots-on-the-ground use cases.

The regulatory landscape is still a wildcard, with a new administration bringing its own set of priorities to the table, but the overarching sentiment is that health IT and EHR vendors must be prepared for anything.

Read on to hear from our experts on healthcare themes for this year.

Practical Use Cases for AI

AI has dominated healthcare technology discussions for the past two years, but in 2025 it is less about possibilities and more about practicalities—putting the technology to work and seeing a clear return on investment.

One of the areas where AI will produce tangible results is population health, specifically addressing health inequities, as Weston Blakeslee, Ph.D., VP of Clinical Strategies at DrFirst, explained to Healthcare IT Today.

“Health inequities are driven by multiple factors, but new technology is helping close the gap. AI tools, such as those on HIPAA-compliant platforms like Microsoft Azure, are transforming how we analyze and apply evidence-based practices,” Blakeslee said. “What once required time-consuming reviews of meta-analyses by clinical leadership can now be streamlined with AI, allowing teams to focus on evaluating insights.”

This shift is accelerating the adoption of best practices in population health management.

“The more common digital patient engagement technology becomes—including wearables, telehealth, and mobile apps—the more the companies behind these tools will need to rethink product development, with an eye on rooting out disparities before they can start,” he said.

Streamlining Prior Authorization and Access to Specialty Medications

New innovations are also allowing healthcare providers and pharmacies to collaborate and better serve patients. This will be welcomed by physicians and pharmacists who will be able to save significant amounts of time and have greater control over their processes as medication management systems improve.

Colin Banas, M.D., M.H.A., Chief Medical Officer of DrFirst, offered his thoughts on this in a Physicians Practice article.

“In 2025, we expect to see the continued upward trajectory of specialty medications, especially as GLP-1s gain more evidence for new indications such as heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease. While many healthcare providers and patients enthusiastically embrace these breakthrough drugs, the new uses come with heightened frustration due to complex and time-consuming prior authorization processes,” Dr. Banas said. “Health IT companies that can prioritize solutions to address these issues quickly and holistically will likely have a substantial advantage over those offering one-off solutions that haven’t quelled providers’ frustrations.”

Specialty pharmacies will assume a larger role in helping patients obtain their medications, Dr. Banas told Chief Healthcare Executive.

“Specialty pharmacies will further expand their patient support services to significantly increase collaboration with healthcare providers and patients to boost access, affordability, and adherence. Gone are the days of simply hitting send on an e-prescription and hoping for the best. Successfully empowering patients with financial assistance, education, and tech-enabled ‘nudges’ will become the norm. As a result, there will be far more interest in holistic patient engagement solutions that can improve outcomes and reduce costs.”

‘Change is Long Overdue’

Further streamlining of medication management workflows will benefit patients, according to Zachary Fox, Executive VP of Business Development at DrFirst.

 “In 2025, expect to see disruptive innovations that allow all electronic prescriptions to be treated as the clinical orders they are rather than as drug-related purchase orders, something especially needed for specialty medications and other complex conditions,” he told Health IT Answers.

“Change is long overdue as physicians and pharmacists continue to lose countless hours trading phone calls and messages, computer systems lack true semantic interoperability, and patients suffer from the resulting gaps in collaboration,” Fox said. “Stakeholders throughout healthcare hunger for an approach that is aware of clinical context, which perfects workflows, and that goes beyond the simple exchange of information to remove the cap on innovation which limits the ability to provide the best care for patients.”

Partnerships Help Prepare for Regulatory Uncertainty

The rapidly evolving regulatory landscape and market conditions will require companies to be nimble and adaptable. As a result, more will turn to vendors to manage platform development.

Nicholas Barger, PharmD, VP of Product at DrFirst, said how we respond in the face of these challenges will have long-ranging repercussions.

“Health IT developers will be at a crossroads in 2025, and the path they choose will have implications on their readiness to meet evolving business priorities,” he told Healthcare IT Today. “With the uncertainty that comes with a new administration, these companies will have even more reasons to outsource their development needs to stay nimble and lean. This is a significant opportunity for platforms that can reduce compliance burdens while enhancing workflows and data-driven insights.”