Digital Health Ideas Living Rent Free in Our Consultants' Minds

Ever wonder what keeps our consultants up at night—or gets them excited about the future? Our HLTH Community advisory team works daily with startups, pharma and enterprises navigating healthcare's digital transformation. Here, they share the ideas, innovations, and concerns that just won't leave their heads.

From AI that won't follow shutdown orders to Europe's game-changing data infrastructure, from voices that diagnose disease to patients redesigning their own care—these are the developments our consultants can't stop thinking about. Each perspective offers a glimpse into what's really happening at the intersection of healthcare and technology, straight from those helping to build it.

EU Health Data Space Unlocks Innovation

Maggie O’Donovan, Senior Digital Health Consultant

I believe the European Health Data Space (EHDS) Regulation, which entered into force on March 26, 2025, marks a transformative milestone in cross-border health data interoperability. This groundbreaking legislation establishes Europe as the first region to create a unified framework for secure health data exchange across national boundaries, unlocking unprecedented opportunities for research and innovation.

Under the EHDS, all electronic health record (EHR) systems must comply with the European electronic health record exchange format, ensuring interoperability at EU level. Member States will be required to make priority categories of data available in a common European format, including patient summaries, e-prescriptions, medical images, laboratory results, and discharge reports. Cross-border services for these priority categories are expected to be available across the EU by 2029.

In my view, the regulation's secondary use provisions are particularly revolutionary, enabling the secure and trustworthy reuse of health data for research, innovation, policy-making, and regulatory activities. Researchers and innovators will gain access to anonymized health data through Health Data Access Bodies (HDABs) in secure processing environments, facilitating data-driven research that was previously impossible due to fragmented national systems. I see the common data model and elimination of data silos as especially transformative for rare disease research, where pooling small patient populations across borders becomes critical for achieving statistically meaningful studies and accelerating therapeutic breakthroughs.

From an economic perspective, this initiative is projected to generate an impressive EUR 5.5 billion in savings over 10 years through improved access and exchange of health data in healthcare, while an additional EUR 5.4 billion in savings is expected from better use of health data for research and innovation. The broader digital health market is anticipated to grow by 20-30% as a result.

Looking ahead, by 2034, third countries and international organizations will be able to apply to join HealthData@EU for secondary use, establishing Europe as the global leader in cross-border health data governance. I believe the EHDS represents a paradigm shift from fragmented national health data systems to a unified, interoperable European health data ecosystem that promises to accelerate medical breakthroughs and improve patient outcomes across borders. I’m excited to see how this will fundamentally impact digital health innovation and scalability across the continent.

Rebecca Coyle, Senior Digital Health Consultant

One area I like to keep an eye on is the rapidly emerging field of voice biomarker analysis, where research is consistently revealing fascinating insights. Every time we speak, our voice signature contains a trove of information that may help detect conditions hidden in subtle variations of pitch, breath rhythm, and articulation. What makes this field especially exciting is how artificial intelligence and machine learning can now detect patterns in voice data that are imperceptible to the human ear.

The range of conditions that voice analysis could cover is surprisingly broad. Parkinson's often reveals itself through monotone speech and slurred articulation. Menopause alters vocal pitch as hormones reshape the vocal cords. Even diabetes, seemingly unrelated, can affect the voice through nerve damage and tissue swelling. It's compelling to see AI now picking up on these subtle cues, with studies showing it can detect type 2 diabetes from voice alone with up to 71% accuracy in men and 66% in women.

But perhaps what's most exciting is the potential shift from reactive to proactive care. If voice can indicate early signs of disease, years before traditional symptoms emerge, we may be on the brink of redefining what early detection really means. Research suggests Parkinson's-related speech changes may precede motor symptoms by a decade. Similar patterns are beginning to appear in Alzheimer's and dementia. It's a powerful idea: that something as everyday as our voice might hold the earliest clues to our health.

Yet challenges remain. Voice data's intimate nature demands robust safeguards; recordings could reveal far more than originally intended. We also need better baseline data to distinguish disease-related changes from natural variations.

With smartphones everywhere and AI getting smarter, we're sitting on a huge opportunity. When so many people still can't access good healthcare, imagine having a powerful diagnostic tool right in your pocket that only needs your voice. It's an exciting step toward making healthcare more accessible, more proactive, and more personalized.

Padraic Hughes, Digital Health Consultant

In light of the recently reported OpenAI o3 model that repeatedly defied shut down orders, we've been given a stark reminder of the importance of guardrails in AI models and infrastructure.

As someone watching AI integration increase exponentially in healthcare settings, I find the consequential nature of this technology particularly stirring. Given its role in managing human lives, it seems clear that governance measures need to develop in parallel. Healthcare AI doesn't just recommend movies or write code—it diagnoses conditions, doses medications, and increasingly makes decisions in critical care settings. The stakes are pretty high.

The o3 incident, in my view, validates concerns that Europe's AI Act initially faced criticism for— heavy prioritization of safety over speed. While Silicon Valley has long championed the "move fast and break things" movement, Brussels' insistence on a "guardrails first" approach now appears a more prescient and attractive proposition rather than overly conservative.

It's not about choosing between innovation and regulation, but finding ways to synthesize them so they reinforce rather than restrict each other. The EU's emphasis on transparency, testing, and ethical frameworks, combined with America's entrepreneurial drive, strikes me as exactly the mixture healthcare demands—ensuring capacity for both breakthrough capabilities and absolute reliability.

The o3 incident serves as a canary in the coal mine as we integrate AI deeper into clinical workflows. In my assessment, the question isn't whether we need governance structures for healthcare AI—it's whether we can build them fast enough. Unlike a chatbot that won't shut down, a medical AI's defiance could cost lives, not just convenience.

Xènia Riasol Cercos, Digital Health Consultant
One thing I’m excited by is the shifting role of the patient as a central driver of digital health innovation—not just as a recipient of care.  

Although there’s still a way to go—and this varies somewhat depending on the condition and the patient's age— today’s patients are informed and increasingly vocal about what they want from healthcare. Another remarkable thing is that, in our highly connected world, one positive development is the emergence of communities of people living with the same conditions, supporting each other and forming meaningful networks. Whether it's accessing therapy through a mental health app, managing chronic conditions via wearables, or participating in clinical trials from home, people are demanding experiences that reflect convenience, personalization, and transparency. Patients are pushing the system to become more responsive, inclusive, and human-centered. 

And healthcare is starting to respond, because they need to foster better adoption, more meaningful outcomes, and close the trust gap that’s long plagued healthcare—and this entails redesigning tools with patient voices at the core. I’m particularly intrigued by platforms that give patients an active role in the ownership of their data, setting their preferences and needs, or even co-designing their care journeys as for me, those are the real strategic differentiators in a crowded digital health market.

Of course, this evolution brings challenges (who said things were supposed to be easy? they never are!): the gaps in digital literacy, ongoing concerns around trust (particularly in how data is used) and the risk that underserved populations may be further marginalized if solutions aren't designed with equity and accessibility at their core. But overall, the direction is clear and positive: patients want partners in care, and that’s transforming how healthcare thinks, builds, and evolves in digital health.