As we head into 2018, there are very few things as certain as the growing relevance and impact of the healthcare sector and health technology. As I look to the year ahead, here are my top 5 health tech predictions:

1. Native advertising will be the drug of choice for pharma marketers

Pharma marketers have a dual challenge of raising awareness about both medical conditions and the products that treat them. Native advertising and content marketing address both objectives by allowing marketers to capture mindshare in highly relevant environments while satisfying brand safety and regulatory requirements. Pharma marketers will recognize this value and shift significant budgets from TV and print to this digital line item.

2. Radical health personalization 

The combination of data from wearables and apps, along with known digital behaviors can create a very powerful recipe for personalized healthcare. From smart devices that communicate with each other to relevant sequential advertising, messaging to consumers will take on a far more individualized approach. Your smart coffee maker might remind you to take your cholesterol medication in the morning, and you will receive ads across multiple devices throughout the day reminding you to refill your allergy prescription, prompting an alert on your phone to go off when you are within one mile of the pharmacy while you are on your way home from work.

3. GDPR will drive development of transformative targeting capabilities

GPDR impacts the way data can be used to target consumers.  These new guidelines place even more stringent regulations around health data, genetic data, and biometric data. Strategic alliances among publishers, data providers and advertisers will form to create new ways to find these audiences in this new world order.

4. Wearable data will be in the hands of the few

Fitness trackers, life-logging platforms and the proliferation of healthcare apps provide an abundance of data, such as steps, heart rate, and sleep patterns, which can be combined with other known information to create highly personalized messaging.  As the wearable industry matures, there will be major consolidation. Apple, Google and Samsung will be the last men standing and will control all of this valuable first party data.  It will be a three horse race to see who can best leverage these insights.

5. AI and ML will save lives in 2018

AI and ML will revolutionize clinical trial recruitment by finding patients based on a variety of factors including symptoms and co-morbidities, and matching up individual online behaviors with relevant messaging to create a highly targeted, message-specific campaign of one.

Wishing you all a happy — and healthy — 2018!

Sloan Gaon is the CEO of PulsePoint, leading the company’s vision and mission to deliver integrated, value-based digital marketing solutions for advertisers and publishers. A renowned industry veteran, Mr. Gaon has executive management expertise in global digital marketing, content and e-commerce.