AI, wellness and mental health are shaping healthcare’s future
Insights
Healthcare
May 27, 2025
May is Mental Health Awareness Month — a time to recognize the growing conversation around mental health, especially in the workplace. While awareness is increasing, there’s still significant progress to be made in reducing stigma and improving support.
Meanwhile, the healthcare landscape is at a crossroads. Rapid advancements in AI, combined with a “Make America Healthy Again”-driven political agenda, are unfolding against a backdrop of rising misinformation and declining trust in institutions worldwide.
In this week’s newsletter, we explore what these shifts mean for strategic communicators navigating this complex and evolving environment.
How strategic communication supports workplace mental health
By 2030, Gen Z will comprise 30% of the workforce — a generation that approaches mental health conversations differently than their predecessors. As workplaces adapt, strategic communication becomes essential for creating truly supportive environments.
To explore this shift, Global Gateway Advisors convened a salon, Thriving Workplaces: Fostering Mental Health Equity, that brought together leading voices in mental health to better understand the barriers and learn from each other about solutions we can implement to foster a healthier work environment for all.
Key takeaways:
- Measure what matters: Use employee sentiment data to inform targeted mental health communications that reflect real needs.
- Normalize the conversation: Encourage leaders to share personal stories to normalize mental health conversations and build employee trust.
- Empower the front line: Equip managers with clear messaging tools to confidently support team members’ mental well-being.
- Communicate with cultural intelligence: Craft culturally aware and inclusive messages that resonate across diverse audiences.
Yes, but: Each year, depression and anxiety lead to the loss of an estimated 12 billion workdays globally, costing the world economy around US$1 trillion in lost productivity. And it’s not just a financial issue: new World Health Organization data show that anxiety and depression linked to COVID-19 cut global healthy life expectancy by six weeks.
Why it matters: Gen Z has different workplace expectations, with 61% saying they would leave a job for better mental health benefits — making it a key factor in retention.
- Support must be visible, fast, and flexible: To meet Gen Z expectations, organizations should offer accessible resources, train managers, and model mental health behaviors from the top.
- Just 56% of Gen Z workers feel comfortable talking to their managers about mental health challenges.
The big picture: Gen Z, the first fully digital generation, reports higher rates of anxiety and depression than older generations — likely due to constant online exposure and the social isolation of COVID-19 lockdowns during key formative years.
By the numbers: Roughly 46% of Gen Z workers say they feel stressed, while 35% experience depression, well above the 20% average of the general population. Worldwide, about one in seven adolescents aged 10-19 years lives with a mental health condition, and suicide is the third leading cause of death among those aged 15-29 years.
- Go deeper: Despite increased awareness, social factors like stigma stop many from seeking the help they need.
What’s next: Global Gateway Advisors is taking the global youth mental health crisis head on. In the coming weeks, in partnership with leading mental health organizations, we’ll unveil a coalition aimed at breaking the stigma and driving lasting change for young adults. Stay tuned.
AI’s transformative role reshapes healthcare
Artificial intelligence is reshaping healthcare, revolutionizing how we diagnose, treat, and engage patients. It could also help fast track much-needed access to new drugs, with the FDA announcing last week that it would begin using AI to speed up its drug review process. Some experts go as far as to compare the rise of large language models (LLMs) in healthcare to decoding the human genome, in terms of its potential impact.
Why it matters: AI is accelerating a shift to data-driven, patient-centric care. Communicators are key to making complex tech understandable and turning it into trusted, human-centered stories.
What AI is doing now
- Smarter diagnostics: AI tools can detect diseases like cancer with up to 94% accuracy — often earlier than traditional methods.
- Proactive prevention: Algorithms spot patterns in health records, imaging and genetics to predict risks before symptoms appear.
- Personalized care: AI tailors treatments to the individual, optimizing drug therapies and minimizing side effects.
Patient engagement: On-demand support with chatbots and virtual assistants offers 24/7 help, and is changing the doctor-patient relationship.
Communicators: Eyes wide open
- Bias + bad info: Many AI models are trained on biased data, which can perpetuate societal inequalities and stereotypes, leading to disparities in patient care and outcomes. Plus, AI can hallucinate, generating false information with confidence.
- Low public trust: A general decline in trust in science and medicine, fueled in large part by a flood of misinformation accelerated by COVID, makes clear, accurate communication essential to rebuild trust and ensure AI advances are understood and responsibly adopted.
The big picture: What this means for health communicators
- Lead with patient impact: Craft messages that emphasize AI’s role in empowering patients — through faster diagnoses, tailored treatments, and accessible care — while addressing concerns about dehumanization. Use relatable stories to build trust.
- Navigate ethical concerns: Expect increased scrutiny of AI’s data use and potential bias. Communicators should be transparent about how systems are built, tested, and monitored.
Tailor messaging to diverse audiences: From clinicians to patients to policymakers, different stakeholders need different levels of explanation. Effective communicators will adapt their strategies to meet each group where they are — balancing technical accuracy with accessibility.
A potential new direction for public health
MAHA — Make America Healthy Again — is the driving force reshaping the healthcare conversation, propelling Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the role of Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Casey Means’ nomination as Surgeon General.
Why it matters: While fringe views on vaccines and fluoride often dominate headlines, a growing number across the political spectrum support a broader MAHA-aligned shift — from treating illness to promoting holistic health. In the U.S., 60% of adults have at least one chronic condition, such as diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure, and 42% have more than one. Nearly 40% of children are also affected.
- Chronic diseases are the primary causes of disability in the U.S. and major contributors to the country’s $3.8 trillion in annual health care spending.
- Obesity is a major risk factor for several chronic diseases, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and certain cancers.
- The conversation around weight loss is also shifting — with anti-obesity drugs like GLP-1s expected to become a $100 billion market by 2030 — toward a stronger focus on improved health outcomes with long-term metabolic solutions, holistic lifestyle choices, and personalized care plans, rather than just short-term weight targets.
What’s next: MAHA aims to drive policy reforms focusing on preventive care, nutrition, and environmental health. Efforts include tighter regulation of processed foods and pesticides, support for regenerative agriculture, expanded wellness programs and less corporate influence in healthcare. A MAHA commission report released last week also targets the “overmedicalization” of children, as well as vaccines.
Yes, but: Experts have raised concerns about the MAHA agenda — especially vaccine skepticism, which comes amid an uptick in measles cases, and the downsizing of the Department of Health and Human Services.
The big picture: What this means for health communicators
The MAHA movement is reshaping health discourse around prevention, lifestyle, and personalized care. Communicators are key to turning this shift into clear, credible messages that build trust.
- Lead with outcomes, not ideals: Focus messages on measurable health gains — less disease, more energy, better sleep — and support claims with clear evidence.
- Meet skepticism with transparency and trust-building: Address concerns directly, use plain language to clarify what’s known and unknown, and amplify diverse, trusted voices. Prioritize authenticity over polish.
- Bridge holistic and science: Highlight wellness strategies like nutrition, movement, and healthy sleep as complements to — not substitutes for — evidence-based care from qualified professionals.
- Counter misinformation strategically and with precision: Don’t just correct myths—anticipate them. Monitor emerging narratives and respond quickly with tailored, shareable facts that resonate with each audience’s values, tone, and preferred platforms.
Recent Health Events Reveal Comms Insights
Three recent industry gatherings reveal where healthcare communication is heading — from AI’s practical impact to wellness as core strategy.
Financial Times US Pharma & Biotech Summit (May 15, New York City)
AI is delivering measurable returns while policy shifts create new messaging challenges around drug pricing and FDA reforms.
For communicators: Prepare narratives that move beyond AI buzzwords to showcase concrete R&D and clinical trial outcomes. Weight loss treatments are evolving from quick fixes to personalized, long-term wellness stories — frame messaging around sustainable health management rather than rapid results.
Axios Future of Health Summit (May 14, Washington, D.C.)
AI’s “superhuman” diagnostic capabilities are real, but transparency demands are intensifying across health policy discussions.
For communicators: Build trust through clear explanations of AI decision-making processes. Personalized medicine faces adoption hurdles — focus messaging on patient outcomes over technological complexity to bridge the gap between innovation and practical implementation.
The New York Times Well Festival (May 7, New York City)
Social connections outweigh traditional health metrics for longevity, signaling wellness has become a foundational healthcare strategy.
For communicators: Integrate relationship and community elements into health messaging. Wellness isn’t a trend anymore — it’s core healthcare positioning. Emphasize human connection as a measurable health outcome, not just feel-good content.
Upcoming health-related events
- The Prognosis for America’s Pain Management (New York City, May 29) Axios will bring together thought leaders and medical experts to discuss challenges in today’s treatment landscape and the current state of pain.
- BIO 2025 (Boston, June 16-19) BIO brings together global biotech leaders to share breakthroughs, shape policy, build partnerships, and communicate the industry’s impact across healthcare, science, sustainability, and innovation.
- Aspen Ideas: Health (Aspen, June 22-25) Join industry leaders to discuss themes like decoding the brain, biomedical breakthroughs, pop culture’s influence on healthcare and the future of food.
- Fierce Biotech Week (Boston, Oct. 7-9) Top biotech and pharma executives share insights on emerging trends and market forces to help companies better allocate R&D budgets, streamline drug development and clinical operations, and navigate fundraising and partnership opportunities.
- FT Live: Global Pharma and Biotech Summit 2025 (London, Nov. 11-12) Industry leaders, C-suite executives, investors, and experts gather to explore the latest trends and innovations in life sciences and discuss what’s new in areas such as drug discovery, clinical trials, market access and patient engagement.
- Forbes Healthcare Summit (New York City, December, exact dates TBA) The annual summit convenes leaders from across the $4 billion healthcare industry to explore the advancements that are reshaping care, including new gene therapies, the rise in GLP-1 use and the AI revolution.
To keep up with what’s ahead, visit Global Gateway Advisors’ event tracker, updated weekly.
Media news + moves
What we’re reading and watching:
- Google launches AI chatbot: A.I. Mode, which CEO Sundar Pichai calls “a total reimagining of search,” turns Google Search into a conversational tool that handles complex, multi-part questions with detailed, context-aware answers. It also offers more personalized options, like a tool that automatically buys clothing when it goes on sale.
- Time Longevity: This new vertical from Time, launching later this year, will spotlight innovations in science, health, business, tech, and policy focused on aging and lifespan extension. It aligns with Time’s broader coverage aimed at business and policy leaders.
- Head of CBS News forced out: “It’s become clear the company and I do not agree on the path forward,” Wendy McMahon said in a memo to staff, after executives requested she step down. This follows the resignation of “60 Minutes” producer Bill Owens, amid reports that parent company Paramount is in talks to settle a lawsuit with President Trump.
- Print is back: At least for major corporations, which view it as a way to strengthen their reputation and connect with hard-to-reach audiences. Last week Microsoft launched its first-ever print magazine, Signal, featuring an article by Bill Gates and interviews with CEOs and experts from Microsoft’s various divisions.
- Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in Business: General Motors CEO Mary Barra tops the annual list, released earlier this week, followed by Accenture’s Julie Sweet and Citigroup’s Jane Fraser.
- New podcast data: YouTube last week released rankings of its top podcasts, with some of the results diverging greatly from those of Spotify and Apple. For example, “Kill Tony,” YouTube’s second-highest ranking podcast, comes in at 54 on Spotify, while the popular “Call Her Daddy” (21 on Spotify) didn’t rank on YouTube’s top 100. Spotify recently introduced a feature to display podcast play counts — but after creator pushback, it reversed course. Play counts will now appear only after a show surpasses 50,000 plays.
- And new podcasts! Bloomberg Businessweek debuted “Everybody’s Business,” hosted by Max Chafkin, senior reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek, and Stacey Vanek Smith, public radio reporter and former “Planet Money” co-host, which promises to “pull back the curtain on conversations happening in offices, Zoom rooms, and group chats at power centers around the world.” At the same time, The Financial Times introduced “Swamp Notes,” a podcast on U.S. politics.
- A media company for execs: At The Moment Media (ATM) launched earlier this week to provide industry leaders with video coverage of their people, products, and events, intended to complement traditional journalism. “This is another toolkit in a marketer’s tool chest,” said founder and CEO Robert Wheeler. “I’m not a journalist. Brands rely on journalists to tell their stories as well as posting their own content, but they also need a reliable third-party to help spread their message.”
- MSNBC to launch Washington bureau: As the outlet formally separates from NBC, execs tapped Sudeep Reddy, most recently at Politico, to lead the new bureau, with plans to hire more than 100 reporters to fill gaps that NBC News reporters previously filled.
- Charter and Cox merge: Two of the largest cable companies in the U.S. have agreed to merge amid increasing competition for viewers.
- The WSJ adds a new executive membership program: The Chief People Officer Council will bring together chief people officers and other senior HR leaders to collaborate, share insights, and address strategic challenges related to human resources, talent management and organizational culture.
Media moves:
- Lynn Cook was named senior breaking news editor for business, finance and economics at The Wall Street Journal.
- Business Insider appointed Julia Hood as its newsroom AI lead, a new role dedicated to enhancing the newsroom’s AI capabilities to assist journalists.
- Bloomberg hired Andrea Chang as a global business editor.
- Charles Rollet, previously at TechCrunch, joined Business Insider as its San Francisco tech correspondent.
- Politico hired Amanda Chu to cover the healthcare industry and its relationship with Washington.
- Samantha Subin joined CNBC.com as a tech reporter.
- Bloomberg hired Max Rivera to cover wealth and real estate.
- Morning Brew hired Beck Salgado as a reporter for its new Revenue Brew newsletter.
- Kimberly S. Johnson joined The New York Times Business section as consumer and industries editor.
- Axios chief financial correspondent Felix Salmon is leaving the organization.
Featured Insights
Innovations in drug discovery – and what communicators should know
Insights
Healthcare
September 5, 2023
As AI permeates business functions across nearly every industry, communicators can glean important lessons from the way each sector talks about the technological advancement and disruption in their respective fields.
With respect to healthcare, researchers have leveraged AI in medicine for years, and we are beginning to see how life-changing treatments can reach the market much faster.
- The “patent cliff” – when the world’s 10 biggest drugmakers stand to lose nearly half their revenue by the end of the decade – is fast approaching.
- Meanwhile, more than 150 small-molecule drugs are in discovery using an AI-first approach, with more than 15 in clinical trials. The annual growth rate for that pipeline is nearly 40%, according to the Boston Consulting Group.
In this issue, we explore the evolving use of AI in drug discovery, and with it, the rising potential of real-word evidence (RWE).
Then, we’ll evaluate the essential role that communicators play in shaping public perception and dialogue around the use of AI in drug and medical device development.
1. Moving from concept to market faster. How AI creates efficiencies in drug discovery
The big picture: Estimates vary, but it currently costs about $1 billion and takes roughly 10 years to develop a new drug, with only a fraction of them making it to the market.
- Change won’t be immediate. But AI can help scientists discover a drug faster by predicting how different molecules might behave in the body, and discarding dead-end compounds so promising candidates make it to clinical trials quicker.
- While there is no shortcut in human clinical trials, AI can optimize and diversify patient pools by identifying high-potential candidates. Currently, just 5% of eligible patients participate in clinical research, which limits the ability to study drug efficacy for specific subgroups.
Go deeper: Decentralized clinical trials can facilitate patient engagement by using remote monitoring via wearable devices, which transmit real-world data (RWD) like vital signs and medication adherence to researchers.
- Researchers can use AI to analyze RWD for potential adverse events and safety signals, allowing earlier detection of potential drug safety issues.
- In some cases, AI is helping drug companies bypass the animal testing stage, allowing them to use computer models of humans instead. Machine learning can also accelerate the repurposing of existing drugs, which is patentable.
What else? Rare diseases get a leg up from the Orphan Drug Tax Credit and the FDA’s fast track designation, but their small patient pools present tough challenges that discourage drugmakers from prioritizing research in this space.
- As a result, 95% of rare diseases have no approved treatments.
- AI is getting better at finding subtle links in large swaths of information that even the finest minds could miss, which helps researchers repurpose drugs and develop new ones faster, even without a large sample size.
What they’re saying:
- Eric Topol, Scripps Research Translational Institute: “There is no shortage of interest [in AI]. Every major pharma company has invested in partnerships with at least one, if not multiple, AI companies.”
- David Ricks, Eli Lilly: “In a discovery process, you want to funnel wide. In the past, perhaps humans would just think of what they already knew about. The machine doesn’t. It just knows about everything that was there and it comes up with constructs that humans just don’t.”
- Tim Guilliams, Healx: “The potential to suddenly create a viable pipeline for many conditions with only a handful of patients, at the very least, gives real hope.”
Yes, but: Jim Weatherall, AstraZeneca’s VP of data science, AI and R&D, said the challenge for the next few years is pull-through, or to actually bring these drugs to market. He is otherwise optimistic: “We’ve been on a journey from ‘what is this?’ to ‘why did we ever do it any other way?’”
2. AI bolsters the pipeline from RWD to RWE
The big picture: Successful AI drug development requires high-quality, real world data, which is challenging to obtain and can be rife with privacy implications. RWD often comprises electronic health records, which present challenges at scale due to a lack of standardization (as they are collected outside the controlled environment of a clinical trial).
- Some researchers believe the answer to these concerns could lie in synthetic data produced by applying predictive AI algorithms to RWD. In pharma, synthetic data could be used to handle large but sensitive samples, where regulatory restrictions and data privacy are involved, such as in cross-border research.
- For now, synthetic data is a niche pursuit and hasn’t yet made its way into clinical use, largely due to concerns that it inaccurately represents the target population.
Go deeper: “The complexity and the variability in healthcare and science makes it a really hard problem to solve,” said Jim Swanson, chief information officer of Johnson & Johnson. “You can create synthetic data easily enough, but is it correlated enough to give you a specific and accurate example? That’s the problem you have to solve.”
- As such, RWD is used increasingly throughout the drug development process, from identifying early targets to post-market safety surveillance.
- The ability to convert RWD to RWE using analytics is a crucial measure of success, as regulators recognize the benefits of RWE and fold them into decision-making.
- This is where AI comes in. Algorithms can identify patterns and relationships within RWD to produce RWE. It can then be used to predict patient outcomes and compare treatments to help researchers understand which are more effective and safe in the real-world setting.
3. Evaluating implications for communicators
The biopharma industry is on a precipice. A Morgan Stanley report estimates that even a modest improvement in early-stage drug development success rates could bring 50 novel therapies to market over 10 years.
After discovery comes the story.
- Communicating new science is tricky and can have a lasting negative impact if not done right.
- The challenge is figuring out how to communicate AI’s benefits and ethical considerations in medicine – when the first AI-developed drug eventually hits the market.
Here are five key considerations for communicators.
- Understand and be transparent about AI’s capabilities and limitations to build trust. Don’t shy away from the risks.
- Be authentic and clear about the potential and limitations of AI.
- Be true to the work and its impact. Use data and insights to educate. Leverage publications and medical meetings as opportunities.
- Showcase the significant personal and societal impact of healthcare innovation on patients over the last century, with AI as the latest example.
- Proactively address concerns about data privacy and AI biases. Clearly communicate how your AI solutions adhere to regulations and best practices. Consider working with medical experts to create a campaign that speaks to the worries and anxieties of the public.
Share your feedback with us at insights@gga.nyc.