2025 healthcare predictions: emerging AI and global diversity strategies,

First introduced five decades ago, MRI scanners are now a cornerstone of modern medicine, vital for diagnosing strokes, tumors, spinal conditions and more, without exposing patients to radiation – Copyright AFP/File ALAIN JOCARD

How will the pharmaceuticals and healthcare industry change in 2025? One of the key advances in 2024 – artificial intelligence – is set to further disrupt healthcare into the new year.

Digital Journal heard from Ryan Brown, Regional VP, Trial Landscape at H1, a provider of global data on healthcare professionals, clinical insights, and research. 

Using AI to Combat Rare Diseases

With nearly 1,000 AI-enabled devices approved, the U.S. FDA has strongly supported the use of AI in medicine.

According to Brown: “In 2025, we will see AI leveraged for faster, more accurate diagnoses in rare disease cases, reducing the  rate of more than a quarter of rare disease patients who spend 7+ years until they receive a correct diagnosis (up from 15 percent from 30 years ago). By connecting symptom patterns and medical histories across dispersed datasets, clinicians will identify rare conditions sooner, reducing the time to diagnosis by years and drastically improving outcomes.”

Brown expands on the potentials of AI further: “Beyond diagnosis, AI will predict treatment responses, personalize therapies, and uncover new disease patterns. And, in rare diseases where patient populations are limited, AI’s ability to streamline trial design and identify patients most likely to benefit from specific therapies will further accelerate rare disease treatment.”

Clinical Trial Diversity: Global Shift to Inclusive, Start-to-Finish Diversity in Clinical Trials 

In 2025, diversity will be a core consideration of clinical trial design from the outset, not just in later stages. 

Brown foresees: “Unlike the FDA’s guidance on diversity action plans, the U.K.’s draft Inclusion and Diversity Plan guidance pushes pharmaceutical companies to consider a wider range of factors beyond race and ethnicity, beginning at early-phase trials. This approach will influence global standards, and it won’t be long before the U.S. and other countries follow suit.”

As to what is likely to happen: “This shift will push the industry to take a more granular approach to collecting and analyzing patient diversity data so trials reflect real-world populations from the start. For example, capturing detailed, region-specific nuances such as ethnic subgroups, transient populations, transgendered populations, religious sects, neurodiversity, rural populations, and other social determinants of health (SDoH).”

Brown thinks: “This will stimulate advancements in clinical trial technology. AI and machine learning will be integral for capturing and analyzing this data to identify ideal trial candidates, and we’ll likely see new tools to track SDoH and applications that increase trial accessibility, especially for rural and underrepresented populations.”

Novel Site Collaborations to Depoliticize Trial-Level DEI and Drive Culturally Compassionate Care

With clinical trials,Brown predicts: “In the evolving landscape of clinical trials, the push for greater diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has often been fraught with political undertones that can overshadow the genuine need for culturally compassionate care. Emerging models of site collaboration, however, are paving the way to reframe DEI beyond compliance mandates, fostering genuine, inclusive partnerships that resonate with the communities they aim to serve.”

Brown adds: “By cultivating collaborations rooted in mutual respect and understanding, clinical trial sites are becoming hubs of inclusive health practices– reflected in their increasingly diverse workforce, ability to obtain novel data points from underserved communities to better inform AI models, and unique localized partnerships that support greater patient engagement. These novel approaches not only depoliticize DEI but also ensure that diverse populations receive care that reflects their unique cultural contexts, ultimately driving better trial outcomes and fostering trust within underrepresented communities.”

Brown concludes: “This new era of site collaboration holds the promise of reimagining patient-centricity by focusing on what truly matters—health equity that transcends political divides, transforming trials into instruments of compassionate, culturally attuned care.”