New York – Welcome to 2020. It’s a new year and a new decade. With that we have another year of critical shifts across the health landscape. These trends are critical to understand as we move forward into our next decade of innovation, opportunity and influence. I’ve been privileged enough to have been able to work on our trends initiative for a second year alongside our Innovation team and across our Syneos Health® network.
Syneos Health® is a unique organization —we have all the capabilities required to help biopharmaceutical companies develop a product, brand and market that product, and then sell that brand to key stakeholders. We exist to shorten the distance from lab to life. Like the mobius strip in our logo, we are part of the continuous development of products in the healthcare space and that provides us with a holistic perspective. Our team interviewed over 200 experts across our global network to harness this distinctive perspective and identify 15 new trends and 60 subtrends that are shaping healthcare today.
The wealth of information that we have gathered for this year’s 2020 Health Trends is remarkable. In this year’s book, we talk about everything from generational population shift, hybrid clinical trials, virtual healthcare and relevance. These trends will help to inform many of our engagements because our teams will utilize these learnings to create better outcomes for their clients. The goal with these trends is not to educate, but rather inform new solutions and promote growth and evolution. This evolution is a necessity in today’s day and age in an effort to meet customers, stakeholders, HCPs and patients, researchers, etc. where they reside or are moving to. We commit to uncovering these truths so that we and our clients, can stay ahead of the curve and push for the necessary growth.
The book itself was a collaborative and comprehensive effort: From writing to editing to design and illustration, our team worked with passion to create something we are proud of. As creative director of this year’s trends book, we sought to make the book more editorial with room to breathe, knowing that the breadth of this content can be overwhelming. Furthermore, we wanted to create a series of identifiable icons for each of the subtrends to help readers navigate. We also incorporated a heavy and unique illustration style throughout the book to provide breaks in the content and anchor the trend chapters.
You’ll see that for each hero visual, we tried to encompass the overall essence of the trend chapter, knowing that each smaller graphic would aim to create a small visual identity for each of the parts of the sum. Within each hero image, we incorporated each of the subtrend identifiers in order to create something that wrapped around the entirety of the content within the chapter. For instance, with “Escalating Talent,” we visualized test tubes as both steps and a rising bar chart, while team members help people rise to the top. More literally, for “Vs. Cancer” we see cancer cells under a microscope. In another instance, for “Rapidly Changing Life Experience” we see the blocks moving and stacking in new ways, like a game of Jenga – always changing.
As a Director of Innovation at Syneos Health Communications, I am excited about how our 2020 Health Trends will shape the mindsets and decisions of the upcoming year. We hope that you will download or acquire a hard copy of this book and use it as a tool to guide you on your path forward. While not every trend in this may be relevant to you, we believe that there is something for everyone, whether they are in the lab, working on brand teams or connecting with healthcare professionals across the world. Our hope is that these 15 trends will encourage you consider new opportunities and ways to build growth. And as always, our Innovation team is here, ready to help you and your teams harness this new wealth of information to create robust new solutions and engagements for the ever-changing healthcare landscape.
