Predictions for 2025 from Innovation leaders

Chris Coburn
Chief Information Officer

In the year ahead, our ongoing work will focus on greater collaboration among industry and academia, providers and producers, and delivering more breakthroughs to the bedside. Next gen AI technology will accelerate this work, enhancing evidence-based innovative output. We are cleareyed on our mission, in fact, an analysis we conducted this year involving input from 100 Mass General Brigham clinical leaders identified a host of unmet clinical needs. Consensus revealed three top areas where solutions are needed: finding better tools for the care of the increasing geriatric population; enabling improved and earlier diagnoses of brain health conditions; and developing new cancer drugs aimed at curability. We are optimistic that advances from Mass General Brigham researchers and others will continue alleviating the burden of disease that we once thought impossible. A recent survey of innovation executives across industry, venture, and academia revealed shared optimism about the long-term prospects for the industry. 

Seema Basu, PhD
Strategic Innovation Leader

We expect industry-academic collaborations in the field of translational research will continue to deepen with an emphasis on continued use of multi omics approaches and use of newer pre-clinical patient derived ex vivo models, such as tumoroids, to inform drug discovery and development in context of human disease relevance. We hope to facilitate advances in research and innovation in emerging therapeutic fields, including new psychedelic therapeutics and vaginal microbiome-based therapeutics, among others. 

Mike Freni, MBA
Vice President, Business Development, Venture Partner, AI and Digital Innovation Fund

I think 2025 will see the continued growth within the digital health sector. While the boom of funding over 2021-2022 introduced tremendous digital innovation, there is likely to be further consolidation in the market and a number of sub-solutions could be rolled into larger platforms. I am hopeful that the capital that has been sitting on the sidelines will refocus on tried-and-tested solutions with clear returns on investment, which is great for Mass General Brigham. We will also see further adoption of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare, likely for more operational uses, with strong adoption of Agentic AI (solves problems independently) to help hospitals and payers scale problems that cannot be solved by humans alone. 

Pat Fortune, PhD
Vice President, Strategic Innovation Leaders

In 2025 clinical trials and launches of obesity drugs will continue at a rapid pace. This will include new drugs from the current leaders, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, as well as from new entrants such as Amgen. These drugs will include targets beyond or in addition to GLP-1 as well as oral formulations. I also expect expanded labels of the currently approved drugs in cardiovascular disorders and potentially in addiction.  

Scott McNeal
Vice President, Innovation Operations and Analytics

Nationally, 2025 is shaping up to be a year of tremendous disruption in our political environment that will impact us all. From the level of investment to the focus of government programs, we expect to see the priorities of our institutions shift. We will need to monitor these changes closely and advocate for our positions to ensure that we continue to advance our mission of medical research and innovation. Within Mass General Brigham and our continued march towards one integrated health system, we will create unique opportunities to collaborate, innovate and unite in unprecedented ways. We look forward to working through all the potential changes with our strong community. 

Stacey Brenner, MBA
Senior Director, Investor Relations and Finance

We are cautiously optimistic about the biotech outlook for 2025. U.S. equity markets are benefiting from a post-election rally, and ongoing rate cuts should support growth. However, healthcare policy uncertainty—especially around NIH funding and drug pricing—could dampen startup activity and venture capital liquidity. In the long run, innovative companies with breakthrough science and strong clinical data will still attract capital, but in the near term, the bar for funding just got higher.

Marc Succi, MD
Executive Director, MESH Incubator

In 2025 and beyond, healthcare will be accelerated by continued innovation in the fields of precision medicine, artificial intelligence, and digital therapeutics. Personalized treatments, enabled by genomics and advanced biomarkers, will tailor interventions to individual patients, significantly improving outcomes in areas like oncology and chronic diseases.

Artificial intelligence will continue to enhance and reach regulatory approvals/implementation phases for diagnostic support, clinical decision-making, and streamlining administrative workflows, allowing physicians and providers to focus more on patient care.

At the same time, the proliferation of venture-backed healthcare AI startups are likely to see increased consolidation in the market led by a select few incumbents in 2025, and I expect to see sole or top 2/3 companies emerge as domain leaders in ambient documentation, scheduling, and clinical decision support. Meanwhile, digital therapeutics and telemedicine will have an increased focus on integrating seamlessly into hybrid care models, leveraging wearable devices and remote monitoring to deliver continuous, patient-centered care that prevents emergencies and manages chronic conditions with real-time insights and evidence-based interventions.

Together, these innovations will alter the standard of how care is delivered, making it more precise, efficient, and accessible.

Erin McKenna, MBA
Head of Medical Devices and Operating Partner, Amplify

I’m hopeful to see more progress in developing transitional coverage for new medical devices and digital therapeutics, especially for breakthrough technologies. Fundraising for developing and commercializing medical devices continues to be challenging due to the length of time needed to achieve nominal coverage post-FDA authorization, recently assessed at a median of 5.7 years.  There are active conversations around continuing to develop the Transitional Coverage for Emerging Technologies pathway supported by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and other conversations with other payers to ensure that delays in coverage not discourage innovation related to new medical devices.  A combination of legislation and additional policy changes by CMS will be needed to support adoption and encourage development of digital therapeutics and health solutions, but considering the need I believe that we will see progress in 2025. 

Carl Berke, PhD
Partner, Mass General Brigham Ventures

AI is maturing into a decision support tool that will enhance, not replace, clinicians' as well as healthcare administrators' ability to handle an increasing case burden.  It will free them from more mundane tasks and utilize their higher cognitive skills for higher value activities.  

Diana Schwartzstein
Vice President, Innovation and Co-Director, Innovation Growth Division

We will support innovator growth and development through collaborative, system-wide efforts across Mass General Brigham. This approach will enhance existing initiatives, expand support, and establish a clear plan to drive innovation as part of the system’s transformation.

Our tailored training and development programs will engage more participants and deliver measurable early outcomes. By strengthening the innovator pipeline, we will enhance Mass General Brigham’s potential to shape the future of innovation.

Dione Kobayashi, PhD
Head of Therapeutics and Operating Partner, Amplify

I am hopeful that as 2025 unfolds we will see momentum build in Women’s Health. Women’s Health has long been an area paradoxically characterized by staggering unmet patient need and fundamental inequity in funding and other resources. The Sprint for Women’s Health by ARPA-H this year was a major catalyst in the space. 2025 could see positive trial results for new medicines, announcement of venture and strategic investment in innovative therapeutic targets, as well as deepened commitments for basic to translational research at institutional and federal levels. 

Gaye Bok, MBA
Partner, AI and Digital Innovation Fund

Adoption of AI tools in healthcare will continue to increase rapidly, especially in administrative use cases. At the same time high quality annotated data with which to train and evaluate the reliability and equity of these tools continues to lag in its availability. A result is that clinical decision use support tools (and even administrative ones) will continue to require “human-in-the-loop” as a final check on quality.

Health systems and vendors alike are experimenting with AI based agents to learn how these can be deployed to increase automation and reduce costs, and there will be rapid increase in demand to test out and evaluate new tools. Some institutions may increase their use of internally developed innovations. For vendors, understanding workflows will continue to be critical, which will benefit companies with legacy digital or ML-based solutions that successfully (and appropriately) incorporate generative AI-based tools into solutions that help clinicians and administrators in their current workflows and deliver a measurable return on investment.