Q&A: LeadingAge’s Scott Code on Predictions for Senior Care Technology in 2025

HEALTHTECH: What senior care trends surprised you in 2024?

CODE: One of the things I’m really surprised and happy to see is the evolution of IT roles. Roles related to traditional IT, such as infrastructure and applications, are starting to expand because organizations are realizing that they need leaders who not only understand technology but understand how the technology relates to their overall business objectives, goals and strategic plan.

The traditional CIO role is turning into the chief innovation officer, vice president of innovation or chief transformation officer. That’s something other industries are already doing. They’re realizing that technology is not a cost center. It’s something that’s going to drive new business as well as new experiences for residents and staff. Organizations are transforming what it means to be an IT leader by using this technology to create better strategic direction in the industry.

The other thing that surprised me is just how important it is to have a robust business continuity and disaster recovery plan. We saw the effects of major cyber incidents and hurricanes last year. Sometimes, systems go down. If they do, what is your backup plan? Some people have the plan, but they never actually test it out. Organizations are now starting to do that and are becoming more thoughtful about recovery.

We worked with some members recently to highlight lessons learned and advise others on storm recovery. Everyone has a business continuity and disaster recovery plan, and the importance of it is magnified, and the role of those plans is evolving. That’s something I’m happy to see.

CONSIDER: These should be your three focus areas for a powerful cyber resilience program.

HEALTHTECH: What technology challenges are senior living and post-acute care organizations still facing?

CODE: Funding remains a significant challenge in technology adoption, especially when deciding how to balance investments in capital-intensive infrastructure versus ongoing operational expenses. Achieving seamless interoperability between systems continues to be a persistent hurdle. On one hand, you’ve got a lot of providers adopting different technologies, such as information systems for clinical, billing, staffing and engagement. However, many times, when these technologies are built, the organization has not fully thought out how they integrate with other systems. They don’t have APIs or an easy way to share information.

As a result, providers are starting to think more about data analytics. That’s one of the trends that you’ll see this year. In the Ziegler CFO Hotline Report: Technology Spending survey that comes out every two years, they asked chief financial officers where they’re going to spend money in the next 12 months. For the first time, data analytics was at the top of the list. It’s always infrastructure, but this is the first time data analytics surpassed it.

The reason is that organizations need some type of mechanism to help bring all of this data together. Some are creating data warehouses and data lakes, then layering on analytics, because you can’t really make decisions about what’s gone on in the past. Data is going to tell your story, but if you don’t know what’s going on and you can’t pull all that data together, then you really don’t know what happened in the past. As a result, you can’t predict the future.

HEALTHTECH: Do you think the shift of funding toward data analytics indicates that organizations are in a good place with their infrastructure modernization?

CODE: There are so many different levels of digital maturity within our industry. There are organizations that have all of these systems and are now trying to figure out the data puzzle piece. Then, you still have some communities that don’t have the robust Wi-Fi needed to set up all of those systems. So, there are many different levels.

LeadingAge has a broad membership. It’s not just senior living; there are community-based organizations as well as affordable housing members. The affordable housing members often don’t have connectivity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, those organizations didn’t have access to people, and those people didn’t have access to healthcare. We’ve been advocating for more resources in that space. There has been federal funding through the Digital Equity Act to try to help fill that gap.

HEALTHTECH: What trends are you anticipating in 2025?

CODE: The industry is frequently talking about analytics, which people are going to be spending more money on. So, you’ll see more of that. Additionally, cybersecurity is always top of mind.

A new Senate bill was introduced in September. It’s the Health Infrastructure Security and Accountability Act, and it would establish mandatory minimum requirements for covered entities like nursing homes and home healthcare agencies to meet cybersecurity benchmarks, such as stress tests and audits, each year. This is partly driven by major cyber incidents and will raise the level of cybersecurity even higher if it passes, which is needed.

Many providers are putting increased effort into cybersecurity in general, because if you want cybersecurity insurance, there is a long list of things you must do. Five years ago, that wasn’t the case. Now it’s pages and pages. I’m a little worried about some of the providers that don’t have cybersecurity insurance and haven’t invested a lot in cybersecurity. If this bill passes, there would still be two years before implementation would start. So, we’ll do a lot of outreach to ensure that our members are aware of what they need to do and how to benchmark that.

DISCOVER: Ambient listening provides transformative benefits to healthcare organizations.

AI is going to continue to roll into this year as well. However, in my mind, large language models are going to have the biggest impact in our industry, not because an LLM is going to transform an organization, but it can transform how an individual works.

There should be a baseline understanding of an LLM that’s freely available: ChatGPT. It can enhance someone’s skill set and affect their productivity at every level of aging services, from a maintenance worker to a social worker, activity director or executive director. LeadingAge released a resource this summer on large language models in aging services to help providers understand some of these practical examples.

LLMs differ from traditional technology typically implemented through IT departments; instead, individuals are often exploring and using them independently. As you engage with LLMs, you'll discover their capabilities and limitations. They excel in certain areas, such as generating innovative ideas, but struggle with tasks like complex math or logic that require diverse experiences. The more you use them, the better you'll understand both their strengths and their weaknesses.

I recommend that anyone interested in AI, especially large language models, read Co-Intelligence: Living and Working With AI by Ethan Mollick.

HEALTHTECH: How can senior living and post-acute care organizations better position themselves to take advantage of new technologies?

CODE: A lot of times, organizations have a strategic IT plan, but they haven’t broken that plan apart and identified technology applications that can help them achieve their goals. That’s one of the things that we often talk about at CAST: being strategic and understanding how you’re prioritizing.

You shouldn’t prioritize a technology just because you have a good relationship with a vendor or because someone said it is the next cool thing. Technology implementations should really be tied to what you’re trying to achieve in the next one to three years. Some organizations get fixated on one new gadget but don’t realize that they’re spending money on something that might not really make sense for their future goals.

HEALTHTECH: How does LeadingAge support senior living and post-acute care organizations as they modernize their IT?

CODE: One of the things that I love about LeadingAge is that we provide a lot of networking opportunities that are either based on provider type or on topics such as technology. Outside of the in-person events, including our annual meeting and the Leadership Summit, LeadingAge has regular member network meetings where we bring members together. In the Technology Member Network, we usually have a short presentation, and then we have an open discussion. It’s very engaging and it gives our members a chance to talk about technology-related issues or innovation, share ideas and network. I think one of the things we’re really good at is bringing people together to share innovative ideas. And our members are willing to share what’s working and what doesn’t work with each other.

We do a lot of that through those meetings, and we also publish resources and tools on our website. These resources include technology selection tools and case studies that highlight how a technology was implemented, the approach, the business model, how they paid for it, lessons learned and advice to share with others. When you’re doing something new, it never works right the first time. We don’t want our members to replicate those mistakes if they don’t have to.