Changes to Watch in Healthcare as 2025 Kicks Off
As the calendar turns and another year begins, it’s important to take a minute and reflect on the year gone by and what’s ahead. For the team here at ImPACT Federal Health, we are looking forward to 2025 after several months of work in 2024 led to the creation of this publication, which serves as a dedicated source for supporting Patient-Aligned Care Teams (PACTs) and other federal healthcare providers.
With a mission in mind to remove barriers to care for Veterans Administration (VA) patients and their families by providing best practices, discussion forums, and the latest clinical news, we are delighted to be able to help bring about change in the federal medicine space. We were also pleased we were able to meet with industry leaders at the Joint Federal Pharmacy Seminar, in November, where ImPACT team leads Lea Drag and Colleen Hall engaged with attendees and discussed ways to address the challenges involved in delivering optimal care to our nation’s heroes.
Looking ahead to 2025, the changes you’ll see in the federal healthcare space are reflected throughout the pages of this issue. For example, we have a write-up about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently announcing changes to recommended immunization schedules, particularly regarding pneumococcal disease and COVID-19. The CDC has dropped the recommended age for routine pneumococcal vaccination from 65 to 50, reflecting a growing recognition of the disease’s impact on younger adults. In addition, for those who are moderately or severely immunocompromised, a second dose of the 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine will now be recommended for individuals aged 56 years and older, 6 months after their first dose. These updates will undoubtedly help to address some of the burdensome issues associated with these illnesses.
Looking ahead into this issue and the future, we’re also planning features on a number of innovations in healthcare, including further incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) into patient care. One such initiative involves a partnership with the FDA and the VA to establish a Health AI Lab. This lab will allow users to test AI products with HIPAA-compliant, deidentified data, marking another step in integrating trustworthy AI solutions across medical centers. The VA’s commitment to AI is also reflected in its creation of a “Trustworthy AI Framework,” designed to guide the ethical use of AI in healthcare systems.
As AI continues to evolve, it is being discussed in medical circles, such as at the 66th Annual American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting, where the ethical, legal, and social implications of AI were examined. The discussion focused on the complexities of informed consent, data representation, and the broader social consequences of AI adoption in healthcare. In the year ahead, you’ll be seeing articles about the ASH Meeting and more related to the use of AI in healthcare.
With ongoing efforts to refine illness prevention through vaccination efforts and incorporate more technology into medicine, like the integration of AI into medical practices, we are certainly poised for a year of progress and innovation in supporting the health of our nation’s veterans and all those served by federal healthcare systems.