See all of Ogilvy's 2026 Predictions here

Healthcare has become a system of intermediaries—and patients are bypassing them

For decades, the healthcare industry added layers between people and what they need. Digital platforms mediated human connection. Pharmacy benefit managers sat between prescriptions and medicine. Traditional funding gatekeepers controlled which innovations reached patients. Each layer promised efficiency or scale, but collectively they created distance, friction, and a growing sense that the system serves everyone except the patient.

As Ogilvy Health looks at the year ahead, we see patients and the industry itself carving direct paths around these obstacles. Exhausted by digital isolation and complexity, patients are demanding direct human experiences, choosing models that deliver medicine directly to them. And patients tired of waiting for traditional capital are directly funding the innovations they need.

The pattern is unmistakable: every intermediary that once seemed necessary is now being questioned, circumvented, or eliminated entirely. In-person connection is replacing algorithm-driven engagement. Direct fulfillment models are bypassing traditional distribution. Patient advocacy capital is rescuing research that venture funds won't touch.

When established systems are bypassed, the instinct is to worry about safety, quality, and oversight. Those concerns are valid. But what we're witnessing is necessity born of frustration.

In 2026 and beyond, directness becomes the competitive advantage. The winners will be those who recognize that while patients are seeking better healthcare, they're really demanding shorter paths to it, more control over it, and a central role in building it.

Here are Ogilvy Health's 2026 Predictions:

#1 - From Pixels to People: Analog Marketing that Drives Digital

What do we expect?
A shift to high value in-person experiences that intentionally drive digital content, online influencer engagements, and ongoing online momentum. Expect device checks at the door, hands-on demos, clinic pop-ins, and community salons that create first- party data, qualified traffic, and repeat engagement.

Where are we now?
Audiences feel digital fatigue, paired with a loneliness epidemic, increasing mistrust of online audiences and an increase in people seeking nostalgia and novelty. Experiential formats are resurging from phone-free gatherings, pop-ups, limited capsule collections, and activations designed to drive offline and online engagement.

What is forcing us to look at it closer?
Surgeon General advisories flag harms from social media and isolation. Experiential trend reports show rising investment in immersive, in-person formats. Digital fatigue and loneliness are top public-health concerns, especially for youth. 

Why does it matter?
As people grow mistrusting of the digital other, they are placing their trust in people and that means brands need to be more human. IRL experiences can build trust, belonging, and behavior change, which correlates with better health outcomes and brand equity.

#2 - Frictionless Rx: DTC Prescribing Models Impacting the Healthcare Funnel

What do we expect?
New commercial models embrace near-direct fulfillment, linking prescribing to providing via manufacturers, transparent-price platforms, and modern pharmacies. This offers clear prices and faster delivery for patients but risks limiting the critical role of HCPs. Expect the industry to further adopt this model, alongside first-party storefronts, to minimize prescription-to-delivery distance.

Where are we now?
New, more direct models for medicine access are rapidly growing, a trend pharmaceutical manufacturers will embrace further. This is evident through examples like Cost Plus Drugs (generics with simple cost-plus markup and direct contracts), Amazon Pharmacy (flat-fee RxPass and auto-applied manufacturer coupons), and telehealth/pharmacy integrations such as Hims & Hers and Ro. Early movers like Lilly Direct already provide patients increasingly seamless, affordable, and accessible medications

What is forcing us to look at it closer?
Federal pricing pressure and policy on PBMs, plus a new federal TrumpRx portal are pushing the market to remove waste and simplify access. Investors and employers are rewarding models that show faster time to therapy, all while giving more knowledge of these models to patients who can benefit.

Why does it matter?
Shorter paths mean more consumer-led decision making: fewer drop offs, cleaner price signals, and better data to design services and support. Done right, these rails protect safety and compliance while lowering friction for patients and clinicians, and they reset expectations for how quickly a prescription becomes medicine in hand. However, programs will need to be built with particular respect to the value of the HCP / patient relationship.

#3 - Reshaping the Innovation Landscape: Patients Driving the Industry

What do we expect?
Patient advocacy groups and mission-driven nonprofits fill funding gaps, deploying venture philanthropy, milestone-based grants, and royalty deals to push science from bench to bedside when traditional capital stalls. Particularly in rare disease, more programs will be rescued by advocacy-led funds and coalitions. Expect co-development models, translational bridge funding, and prize mechanisms that target proof of concept and enable faster trial starts.

Where are we now?
Trial logistics are increasingly difficult due to smaller subpopulations, stricter feasibility criteria, and recruitment risk, requiring partners who can convene ready cohorts. Amid funding gaps, patient advocacy groups have expanded their role beyond traditional grants: co-funding studies, running registries, shaping endpoints, and providing services that de-risk enrollment. They also partner with academia and biotechs to speed study start-up.

What is forcing us to look at it closer?
Funding volatility is real: federal dollars are unstable with tight paylines and NIH funding fewer new grants. Venture investment in biopharma has slumped significantly, leaving early programs exposed. Rare disease programs face outsized risk due to high economic burden and fragile funding, making advocacy capital the bridge. Payers and employers are demanding clearer value stories tied to outcomes that matter to patients, pushing sponsors to co-design evidence with the communities they serve.

Why does it matter?
New funding models means new stakeholders and with it, new approaches to innovation that are focused on patient need, requiring industry and biotech to change their overall approach and goals for development programs.