At a glance
- A global healthcare worker shortage of at least ten million is expected by 2030.
- Closing that shortage could avert 189 million years of life lost to early death and disability and boost the global economy by $1.1 trillion.
- While known supply-side interventions that enable the workforce to grow, thrive, and stay can add about 5.6 million healthcare workers, this is not enough to close the gap. Closing it will require transforming healthcare service delivery—reimagining who provides healthcare, how services are delivered, and where care is accessed.
Over the last century, people have lived longer, yet the portion of life spent in poor health remains unchanged, resulting in more years battling chronic and infectious diseases. Individuals face a growing reality: Access to healthcare professionals when one is sick, elderly, or in pain can no longer be taken for granted.
That is because a global shortage of at least ten million healthcare workers is expected in 2030, according to the World Health Organization, with upper estimates over 78 million (see sidebar “Definition of healthcare workers”). Without enough healthcare workers to deliver care, fewer people have access to services that save lives and improve quality of life.
Currently, nearly 60 percent of the global population—approximately 4.5 billion individuals—lack access to essential health services. These services include immunization, safe pregnancy and childbirth practices, prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, and management of chronic or noncommunicable conditions. In practical terms, the consequences include delays that affect patient experience, such as waiting longer for a hip or knee surgery, and tragic outcomes, such as mothers and newborns dying in childbirth due to a lack of qualified health workers. Developing and retaining sufficient healthcare workers to assist those who are ill and promote healthy living is a challenge that affects almost every country. It is also a challenge that cannot be addressed solely by the healthcare industry. Rather, it will take a global movement in which public and private stakeholders inside and outside healthcare invest and innovate.
Addressing the healthcare worker shortage is an opportunity to profoundly advance health worldwide, adding years to life and life to years. McKinsey Health Institute’s analysis finds that closing this shortage could avert 189 million years of life lost to early death and lived with disability, accounting for 7 percent of all disease burden (see appendix, “Disease burden and GDP impact sizing methodology”). To put this into context, closing the shortage would have as much positive benefit as eliminating the disease burden stemming from maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality conditions.
Closing the healthcare worker gap can also have an immense impact on the global economy to the tune of $1.1 trillion, roughly equal to the GDP of Switzerland. The McKinsey Health Institute (MHI) estimates that around $300 billion of that could be a direct result of the greater number of healthcare worker jobs (Exhibit 1). However, the much larger economic stimulus comes from the ripple effects healthcare workers have on making all workforces healthier and indirectly creating non-healthcare jobs (for details, see appendix, “Disease burden and GDP impact sizing methodology”).
The shortage of healthcare workers and the potential for improvement are not evenly distributed globally. Africa, with 17 percent of the world’s population, accounts for 52 percent of the shortage and over 70 percent of the opportunity to reduce disease burden (Exhibit 2). However, less than 20 percent of the GDP opportunity is concentrated in Africa, highlighting the variation in disease burden averted and GDP gained by closing the shortage. Further, while global life expectancy at birth could be extended a year and a half by eliminating the worker shortage, this improvement pales in comparison to the potential for Africa, where individuals could live seven years longer.
The healthcare workforce needs attention, investment, and innovation. In this report, MHI considers how to address the healthcare worker shortage by not only increasing the supply of healthcare workers but also fundamentally reimagining the “who,” “how,” and “where” of healthcare service delivery.
Four country archetypes represent how challenges and priorities differ based on healthcare workforce dynamics.
Each country faces unique supply and demand dynamics in the healthcare labor market, so customizing solutions is essential for addressing the global shortage. Solutions cannot be limited to recruiting more healthcare workers based on population needs; countries also must ensure there are enough available healthcare jobs in a region or country.
Countries can be categorized based on whether they have enough healthcare workers relative to population needs and enough employment opportunities for new and existing healthcare professionals. Either of these may reflect deeper challenges such as economic, educational, or policy constraints. To help stakeholders frame potential opportunities for improvement, MHI’s analysis categorized countries by these two dimensions to define four archetypes (Exhibit 3):
Examination of these archetypes shows that each comes with its own challenges. More than half of all countries, representing 71 percent of the global population, are worker-scarce countries, with a low number of healthcare workers relative to the population but many open healthcare jobs. These countries have a median of 98 healthcare workers per 10,000 population. These are mostly middle-income countries across Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. For example, Peru has fewer than 400,000 healthcare workers supporting a population of about 30 million, and there are 1.3 jobs for every healthcare worker. Because worker-scarce countries have capacity to absorb new healthcare workers, investments in training capacity are especially critical.
Worker- and job-scarce countries—those with the dual challenge of not enough healthcare workers and not enough available healthcare jobs to meet population health needs—include 42 countries, mostly low- and middle-income countries on the African continent. They have a median of 32 healthcare workers per 10,000 population, less than one-third the global median. These countries experience poorer health outcomes than the rest of the world: an individual’s median health-adjusted life expectancy is 55 years, compared with a global median health-adjusted life expectancy of 63 years, and their disease burden is nearly a third higher than the global median. These countries’ primary challenge is economic conditions that limit the ability to finance health systems, build critical infrastructure, train staff, and provide living wages for healthcare workers.
Worker-advantaged countries, where relatively more healthcare workers serve their populations than the global median but some healthcare jobs are unfilled, include 47 countries, primarily in North America and Europe. These countries have more than three times the global median of healthcare workers per capita and more than ten times the median of worker- and job-scarce countries. They typically have better health outcomes, with an average health-adjusted life expectancy at birth of 70 years, compared with the global median of 63 years, with a roughly 8 percent lower disease burden. The largest opportunity in these countries is to support healthcare worker effectiveness, which can lead to increased healthcare worker capacity. But even in these countries, substantial disparities in the distribution of healthcare workers may persist.
Worker-surplus countries have more trained healthcare workers than available jobs. While this phenomenon may occur on a subnational level, no countries currently fit this archetype. Everyone bears the burden of the shortage.
A country cannot change from a scarcity archetype solely by adding more healthcare workers. Rather, countries need a broader lens that accounts for investment, regional and national priorities, and infrastructure.
Scaling known interventions from the Healthcare Workforce Triangle can enable the workforce to Grow, Thrive, and Stay.
How could public- and private-sector entities come together to strengthen the healthcare workforce in ways that reflect their country’s needs? In this report, MHI focuses on three types of strategies, which form what we call the Healthcare Workforce Triangle (Exhibit 4):
- Grow. Expand the talent pipeline by reimagining training program structure, timing, and scale.
- Thrive. Free up healthcare workers’ time to focus on delivering quality care to more patients.
- Stay. Improve retention of healthcare workers by addressing the root causes of burnout and attrition.
Together, these interventions can improve the supply of healthcare workers, adding more than 5.6 million workers to the global healthcare workforce.
Grow: Expand the talent pipeline by reimagining the structure, timing, and scale of training
A shortage of clinical training positions and skilled educators is a major barrier to expanding the healthcare workforce. Existing training programs have limited capacity—in terms of both school enrollment and clinical experience positions—that restrict the number of graduates entering the field. In the United States, for example, there were more than twice as many applicants as available spots for medical school in 2024. Compounding this issue, many experienced clinical faculty are nearing retirement. Expanding the talent pipeline could add 1.9 million healthcare workers globally (for details, see appendix, “Disease burden and GDP impact sizing methodology”). This is especially important in worker-scarce countries, which have high rates of job vacancy.
Expand enrollment capacity with additional training sites and educators
Expanding the pipeline will likely necessitate increasing school capacity and attracting additional educators. This involves assessing the specific needs of a country based on its archetype and introducing a range of educational opportunities for prospective healthcare workers, such as pharmacists, imaging technicians, nurses, and more.
Add additional schools and sites to train the next generation. A shortage of training opportunities, including limited positions in medical schools, nursing programs, and clinical training sites, limits the number of healthcare professionals entering the workforce. Some countries are addressing this challenge through policy initiatives that expand training infrastructure, particularly in underserved municipalities.For instance, Brazil established over 160 new medical schools from 2013 to 2023, expanding its physician graduate population. This expansion helped increase Brazil’s primary-care physician workforce by 12 percent, which has been associated with a 1.4 percent reduction in mortality. Other strategies to expand training sites include establishing centers of excellence for specialized training and forging partnerships between governments and private hospitals to expand residency slots, as India and Tanzania have done.
Encourage flexible clinical faculty positions. Not only are clinical workers aging out of the profession, but so are the teachers of these workers. In Canada, almost half of surveyed nursing faculty were over the age of 50, and 18 percent were above 60, nearing retirement in the next five years. Such a phenomenon runs the risk of leaving training facilities with inadequate faculty to meet student demand. One way to address this challenge is by offering phased retirement, which allows faculty to start working fewer hours at a reduced salary but with full benefits. Keeping faculty in the workforce longer could help retain experienced staff, which would ease staffing shortages and reduce strain on the healthcare system. Early research suggests that older working adults could become more engaged and productive in the workplace through phased retirement. This strategy has the potential to maintain clinical faculty in the healthcare industry beyond traditional retirement age.
Adopt innovative training approaches
To address the healthcare workforce shortage, it may be necessary for countries to reassess the duration of certain educational programs or explore methods for accelerating student training. This could also involve integrating innovative technologies, such as virtual reality simulations and AI-driven learning platforms.
Shorten program duration to increase the number of annual graduates. Shorter, innovative training models should still focus on quality while acknowledging that accelerated programs can ease the financial burden on students. In the United States, accelerated nursing program graduates nearly doubled between 2013 and 2023, adding about 8,000 nursing graduates annually. The accelerated bachelor of science in nursing (ABSN) allows students to start working after a 12- to 18-month training period—half the training time of traditional programs. Other countries offering accelerated nursing programs include Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. In the United Kingdom, the National Health Service offers accelerated programs for specialties such as speech and occupational therapy, nursing, and physiotherapy. This can make it easier for nurses to start jobs and has helped attract professionals from a diverse range of fields while maintaining the rigor and quality of training.
Employ digital methods to improve training completion and licensure rates. Scalable tech-enabled training approaches, such as those that utilize mobile learning applications, e-learning platforms, and content production studios, can help bridge critical training gaps, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. In Uganda, for example, integrating interactive displays into medical training not only improved access to quality training in remote areas but also improved training outcomes for healthcare professionals.
Recent advancements in technology have made virtual reality a new pathway to train healthcare workers for some portion of their training, with its effectiveness comparable to that of traditional settings. In 2020, the Purdue Global School of Nursing started using virtual reality as an experiment. Students could practice procedures such as inserting a catheter and placing an IV in virtual reality. Now VR headsets are an essential tool in their nursing curriculum, and licensure examination pass rates have increased by 10 percent. Other programs have used VR for dementia training, neurogenerative decline, or to understand hearing and vision loss. This approach creates a scalable pathway to expand access to training in areas with limited educational options.
Thrive: Free up healthcare workers’ time to focus on delivering quality care to more patients
Healthcare workers face simultaneous pressures from rising patient demand and administrative burdens, limiting the time they can spend on direct patient care. McKinsey’s research has shown that up to 30 percent of nurses’ tasks could be automated or delegated, freeing up time for more meaningful work. Rapid advancements in AI technology could help streamline workflows by summarizing notes, drafting discharge summaries, automating documentation, and improving task prioritization. While numerous pilots exist, broader implementation remains limited. MHI estimates that freeing up healthcare workers’ time could create the equivalent of two million additional workers, a crucial strategy for worker-advantaged countries (see appendix, “Disease burden and GDP impact sizing methodology”).
Ensure the right tasks are completed by the right people at the right time and in the right place
Even when recruitment and retention efforts are robust, both health workers and patients benefit from modernizing care delivery. This often includes task-sharing and technology-enabled tools, such as AI.
Maximize task sharing across healthcare workers. Many healthcare workers, such as community health workers (CHWs), care managers, and health assistants, act as the connectors between communities, social services, and healthcare systems yet are often excluded from the formal healthcare system. These workers educate patients, offer health counseling, deliver essential primary healthcare services, provide screenings and assessments, advise on adherence, and assist with routine patient needs, allowing other clinicians to provide more complex care and offering a critical link to improve care. Additionally, other community-based roles in lower-middle-income countries, such as village health workers and patent and proprietary medicine vendors (PPMVs), can support task sharing in preventive care, basic diagnostics, and medication adherence, allowing clinical healthcare workers to focus on more complex care. Training for these roles must be comprehensive and robust for effectiveness; however, training duration is typically shorter than for more specialized roles. Introducing roles like these can facilitate top-of-license practice by ensuring workers provide care that aligns with their expertise, rather than performing tasks that could be done by someone with less training.
For example, in India, integrating CHWs into diabetes care improved early detection and timely referrals while reducing unnecessary physician visits. Patients with CHW support were 1.5 times more compliant with medical instruction than those without. The study showed task sharing not only maintained but enhanced diabetes care, easing the burden on the health system.
In the mental health space, community-level informal care and nonspecialist workers can play a significant role in freeing up specialist capacity to provide care to the over 90 percent of patients who do not receive care today in low- and lower-middle-income locations. Programs such as Friendship Bench or Thinking Healthy Program show how training nonspecialist health workers in task sharing can help meet mental healthcare needs. However, much work remains to identify implementation barriers and create evidence-based task-sharing mental health interventions at a global scale (for more, see sidebar “Task sharing in mental healthcare”). Some programs have successfully overcome barriers like cost, travel, and scalability by leveraging culturally tailored digital interventions. For example, India’s Healthy Activity Program (HAP) used linguistically adapted e-learning to train nonspecialist health workers in delivering psychological care, enabling wider reach and sustained mental health support in low-resource settings.
Scale use of tech-enabled tools to free up healthcare workers’ time
For well over a decade, the healthcare industry has looked to automation and technology to improve patient care and efficiency. Although pilots abound, many systems have become stuck when companies are scaling effective interventions. That should become the focus.
Increase the automation of tasks. AI technology has emerged as a useful tool to shorten time-intensive manual tasks that take away from patient care. One start-up in India has helped primary-care physicians reduce by 72 percent the time they spend reviewing their own notes and determining the appropriate billing code. A study in the United Kingdom found that AI-assisted clinical documentation could reduce consultation length by 26 percent while maintaining patient interaction time and improving documentation accuracy. McKinsey has estimated the opportunity for gen AI in life sciences to have up to $7 billion of value in operations and up to $30 billion of value in commercial life sciences, ranging from real-time inventory optimization to medical review and customer support. For example, some health systems are automating administrative tasks such as reading invoices and faxes for medications—which used to be done manually by pharmacy staff. Collectively, these automation strategies can reduce the administrative burden on clinicians and free up their time for more rewarding and relevant patient care.
Integrate AI-enabled clinical decision-making. The availability of AI can also inform clinical decision-making, saving time while improving the quality of care. For example, in Malawi, computer-aided X-ray interpretation reduced the time to diagnose tuberculosis and HIV by 90 percent, from 11 days to one day. The automation generated accurate diagnoses in 91 percent of cases while reducing patient visits and freeing up valuable time for physicians to focus on more direct patient care. The goal is for “humans in the loop” to harness the power of AI and other tools to adapt, plan, and guide decisions.
These thoughtfully implemented technologies, protected by robust patient safety and privacy safeguards, can enhance the overall patient experience and improve the healthcare worker experience. Healthcare professionals—such as a midwife who can focus on delivering babies rather than being overwhelmed by postpartum paperwork, or a physician who can initiate HIV and tuberculosis treatment without delay—are more likely to find purpose in their work and stay in their profession.
Stay: Improve retention of healthcare workers
Research shows that inadequate compensation, poor working conditions, and unmanageable workloads are root causes of healthcare worker attrition. Addressing these root causes could result in 1.8 million healthcare workers remaining in their professions (see appendix, “Disease burden and GDP impact sizing methodology”). This is especially important in worker-scarce countries.
Reactivate and reenergize existing healthcare workers
Healthcare leaders embarking on culture transformations have to introduce and embed new rituals and ideas into the workplace, actively exposing individuals to best practices they might not have previously considered. Reducing the violence against healthcare workers, improving workplace culture and prioritizing employee well-being, and creating more societal appreciation for healthcare workers are only three of the topics.
Reduce violence against healthcare workers. Healthcare workers cite violence as a top workplace concern, and with good reason: In an analysis of more than 300,000 healthcare workers globally, nearly one in four said they had experienced physical violence, and over half reported verbal abuse. During the COVID-19 pandemic, reports of workplace violence in healthcare settings doubled among nurses worldwide.
Addressing healthcare workplace violence requires comprehensive solutions, not isolated initiatives. Traditionally, efforts to reduce violence in healthcare systems have focused on providing individuals with training in de-escalation and violence mitigation. The next step in advancing safety might be environmental and infrastructure innovations. For example, one French emergency department implemented a multifaceted approach that merged computerized triage with waiting room communication systems, educational messaging, on-site mediation, and security monitoring. The results were immediate and dramatic: violent incidents plummeted by 53 percent within the first month of implementation.
Improve workplace culture and well-being. As discussed in previous MHI research, there is considerable economic benefit to investing in employee health and embedding it into organizational culture. For all industries, this may include flexible working schedules, investment in leadership training, job crafting and redesign, and digital programs on workplace health. These interventions can be most effective when employers also invest in the root causes of burnout, such as addressing overwork. In healthcare, an analysis of US hospitals found that most offer physical activity and nutrition programs and chronic disease health screenings, and two-thirds of larger hospitals offered lactation support. Some employers have already realized a positive return on their investments in employee health, including avoiding attrition costs, which could be as high as $1 million per US physician.
Support broader societal appreciation for the healthcare workforce. In addition to verbal abuse, healthcare workers have cited an increasing lack of appreciation and the devaluation of their profession as factors in leaving their jobs. For instance, a study in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden found that more than 40 percent of healthcare workers said they had seriously considered quitting, with about one third feeling “not at all valued” by top municipal leaders or media.
Public recognition can serve as a powerful tool to boost healthcare worker morale and motivation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a practice of community members clapping at a scheduled time to honor healthcare workers took hold throughout various countries. While some healthcare workers said the efforts felt intangible, a third of those in the United Kingdom said they considered “Clapping for Carers” to be a helpful response. Similarly, a US study found that 60 percent or more of healthcare workers reported that receiving positive feedback from patients and families enhanced their sense of value and commitment. While these symbolic acts are important, broader societal initiatives such as business discounts, school programs, local celebrations, and media campaigns are essential to shift public perceptions. Ultimately, embedding respect for healthcare workers into public discourse requires conscious time, effort, and attitude shift.
Invest in talent localization
As organizations recruit for qualified healthcare personnel, they may explore strategies to develop their own local talent pipelines. This includes addressing the issues of “brain drain” and rural-urban migration challenges.
Reduce the brain drain. Although many worker-advantaged countries benefit from the immigration of healthcare workers, this migration exacerbates shortages in other parts of the world. While data quantifying the scale of the brain drain is limited, research has found that one-fifth of African-born physicians are working in high-income countries (HICs). This emigration of medical talent from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to HICs has stymied expansion of essential health services by limiting workforce growth and the local cultivation of new talent. Brain drain has also cost LMICs over $15 billion in lost economic growth, with India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and South Africa being the most affected.
As countries create additional or new healthcare educational programs, they also will want to consider whether graduates will migrate. For example, 30 colleges in India offered a bachelor’s of science in nursing degree in 2000; by 2021 there were 2,241 options, creating what experts have called “a train for export” model. In the Philippines, traditionally one of the world’s largest producer of nurses, officials have said they must find ways to retain the country’s own healthcare workforce to fill a gap of 190,000 workers, such as by offering scholarships and strengthening workforce development, and/or by requiring a year of service before moving abroad.
Globally, the World Health Organization has issued guidance on bilateral agreements to provide a structured approach to mitigating the negative effects of brain drain. For example, in Germany’s Triple Win program, Germany recruits nurses from countries with a surplus of nurses, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tunisia, Philippines, and others, but also collaborates with those governments to invest in skills development and employment opportunities to ensure that the recruitment does not negatively affect the local workforces.
Reduce rural-urban disparities. The brain drain can also occur within a country. Such a phenomenon, also known as “human capital flight,” can hurt rural areas, which are often chronically underserved by healthcare workers. In South Africa, for example, only 19 percent of nurses are based in rural areas, which account for 46 percent of the population.
Countries have successfully mitigated human capital flight by investing in talent localization programs, which employ tailored local training and incentives to develop and retain healthcare professionals in rural areas. These programs have been shown to increase retention by 35 to 50 percent.In Thailand, a rural recruitment program achieved a 2.4-times increase in the likelihood that medical school graduates would continue working in rural facilities.
An additional factor to consider in rural recruitment and retention is offering child care. Globally, around 350 million children below the primary-school entry age—particularly those in rural areas—need child care.In 2020, a rural hospital in Minnesota made a strategic decision to open an on-site child care center for its employees’ children. This employee benefit has allowed the hospital to attract and keep workers younger than the national average.
Innovation in who delivers healthcare, how, and where can transform service delivery and help meet the demand for workers.
The healthcare workforce shortage cannot be solved by merely adding more healthcare workers. Chapter 2 illustrates how supply-side strategies could add about 5.6 million more workers to the global healthcare workforce, but that still leaves almost half the shortage unfilled.
A radical shift in the “who,” “how,” and “where” of healthcare delivery could help patients move from higher-acuity settings that require intensity of healthcare workers—such as intensive care units—to lower-acuity settings, such as community clinics. The goal would be to prioritize primary and preventive care, including by making it a part of individuals’ daily lives. In the short term, this may increase demand for care in lower-acuity settings. However, the long-term effects could ultimately decrease patient demand, particularly in high-acuity, resource-intensive environments, while also improving overall patient health management and outcomes. These innovations could include the following:
- Who: Everyone can be their own healthcare worker. Empowering patients to receive care at home and in their community, and to stay physically and mentally active, can assist in preventing and managing disease outside of traditional higher-acuity medical settings.
- How: People find the right care before disease progression. Next-generation AI- and technology-enabled tools could encourage clinical touchpoints earlier in disease progression to avoid resource-intensive care.
- Where: Low-barrier healthcare touchpoints are embedded within daily life. Introducing more screenings, treatments, and community health resources in everyday locations could boost early intervention and preventive services.
Who: Everyone can be their own healthcare worker
The future of healthcare delivery demands a fundamental shift in how society defines healthcare workers. In the future, individuals may increasingly take on roles such as their own bankers, travel coordinators, or educators, if they have not done so already. They can also act as their own healthcare worker or navigator. In the future, patient–provider boundaries blur, and healthcare careers can start at any time. The healthcare workforce of tomorrow includes every individual, as well as cohorts of individuals emerging from retirement. The future healthcare workforce—which spans traditional clinicians, community health workers, caregivers, and individuals managing their own health—will identify and address potential health concerns at their earliest, most treatable stages, benefiting patients and unburdening the system from preventable acute-care episodes that currently overwhelm limited resources.
These efforts recognize that a patient with a search engine is not the same as a healthcare worker with years of training and experience. The two roles are meant to complement each other, with everyone encouraged to share responsibility for better health outcomes.
Dramatically improve health literacy and ownership of one’s health journey
Strengthening comprehensive health education is an opportunity to rewrite how society prepares the next generation to be architects of a healthier future. Tactical education about one’s health—how to understand and manage it—could be built into primary and secondary education. For example, every subject from math to language, starting from preschool and extending through post-secondary education, could weave in health concepts. Primary-school students could move beyond basic handwashing into socioemotional learning to build their resilience, which contributes to mental health. Secondary-school students could analyze their community’s health resources and barriers in civics class and chronic disease prevention in science.
This isn’t just a curriculum; it’s the foundation to enable prevention as an effective prescription for care. This foundation is critical, as MHI research has shown that 70 percent of health gains are achievable from behavioral and environmental changes, rather than from disease treatment. Capturing this opportunity will require the democratization of health information to make it more culturally and locally accessible than it is today. Doing so would be beneficial for every patient and also could reduce healthcare workloads, especially in places where health systems are overwhelmed by patients with preventable diseases.
Provide learning opportunities and tools so individuals and families can manage disease at home
Continuing health literacy in communities can shift suitable treatments from clinical settings to homes and community centers, dramatically improving access to care, reducing costs, and alleviating the healthcare worker shortage. For example, enhanced medical education can reduce the use of emergency departments. Common emergency department visits for conditions such as urinary tract infections, mild allergic reactions, minor wounds, and dehydration can often be managed at home with enhanced first-aid capabilities, diagnostic tests, and proper training. Reducing such visits could start with reimagining the traditional first-aid kit, transforming it into a home or community station that includes smart diagnostic tools and advanced treatment options. In the case of diarrheal illness, for example, oral rehydration therapy could be used at home, reducing the frequency of emergency room and outpatient visits.
Changes from hospital-based care to self-care have already been linked to greater patient control and treatment satisfaction in home dialysis. The examples here are just some of the ways expanding community-based health literacy could empower patients and increase health system capacity.
Reimagine drug delivery and shift to self-administration
Similarly, the rise of self-administered medication shows how revolutionizing drug delivery has the potential to alleviate strain on healthcare workers. The development of simple pen injectors for periodic self-administration of medicine has made prescription drugs more accessible for home use. Reproductive health has undergone this transformation through the introduction of self-injectable contraceptives, expanding both choice and access to essential care. In two studies from Malawi and Uganda, providers reported that prescribing self-injectable contraceptives reduced their workloads by eliminating the need for visits solely dedicated to medication administration. Patients undergoing fertility treatments have regularly followed instructions on mixing formulations and injecting themselves at home, often within specific time frames. Recently, the advent of self-injectable GLP-1 drugs has driven unprecedented adoption for diabetes and weight management.
Self-injectables might initially increase healthcare professionals’ workloads for patient safety training and follow-ups. However, the healthcare system could ultimately benefit from reduced strain as costly chronic disease visits are prevented over time. The balance lies in creating safe systems that prevent errors and require minimal healthcare worker oversight.
Healthcare’s future transcends hospital walls. It thrives when individuals become their own first-line providers, equipped with clinical guidance, community support, and the knowledge to transform from passive patients into active stewards of their well-being.
Reinvest in retirees, engaging older adults as healthcare workers
Unretirement, the growing trend of people returning to work after initially retiring, presents a powerful opportunity to engage older adults in meaningful second careers in healthcare. In an MHI survey, nearly 20 percent of older adults in high-income countries expressed interest in working during their later years but said they are not currently doing so. For retired adults who want to feel connected to and part of their communities, working as a healthcare provider may be a way to find meaning. MHI research has found that older adults are happier and healthier through meaningful engagement with society, including reentering the workforce. Research has also shown that older workers can boost productivity and stabilize employee retention in the workforce. In the future, thoughtfully designed pilot programs could test the viability and success factors of employing reskilled retirees as healthcare workers.
The growing population of working older adults could help address healthcare workforce shortages by taking on roles such as community health workers (CHWs), which require shorter training periods. These reskilled retirees can serve as vital bridges between communities and health systems with flexible schedules—a strategic solution, given CHWs’ proven ability to improve outcomes, generate positive return on investment, and enhance cultural responsiveness, especially in underserved areas.
How: People find the right care before disease progression
The traditional model of seeking healthcare—waiting until symptoms appear before engaging with the health system—needs to evolve. Chronic diseases are a global problem. In the United States alone, they affect 60 percent of the population and drive a staggering 90 percent of the nation’s total healthcare expenditures. Low- and middle-income countries make up 80 percent of noncommunicable-disease-related deaths, of which 80 percent are avoidable through disease management. A forward-thinking, technology-enabled approach could detect health problems before they become serious, connect patients with the right healthcare professionals, and dramatically reduce preventable emergencies and chronic disease. This would transform reactive medicine into a system that proactively preserves both lives and resources.
These efforts do not imply increasing low-value care—healthcare services or diagnostics with minimal or no clinical benefit. Rather, a technology-enabled approach can help identify when early intervention is appropriate and match patients with the right professionals based on their unique needs.
Invent and scale diagnostic tools that encourage appropriately early clinical touchpoints to avoid high-acuity treatment later
Next-generation technology, such as AI-enabled pre-detection tools, could alert patients and providers to the early onset of disease before health complications become acute. Imagine smart mirrors that can detect subtle changes in the skin, suggesting potential skin concerns. Toilets equipped with sensors might analyze waste for early signs of colorectal cancer, kidney disease, or nutritional deficiencies. Smartphones could use advanced AI algorithms to look at voice patterns during phone calls to find early signs of memory loss or use cameras to detect small changes in facial symmetry that might indicate stroke risk. These innovations are already being tested or even on the market but need more development and integration to become a part of daily reality for most individuals. In India, AI applications are being applied to detect early-onset cataracts using only smartphone-captured images. This screening tool has the potential to expand eye care in areas with limited specialty access by complementing traditional eye examinations.
These innovations, combined with traditional wearables that track vital signs and activity patterns, can embed a comprehensive early-warning system into daily life and reduce the need for acute care. All systems must continue to protect patient privacy and safety, and they must avoid making excessive promises about improving health for all users. Instead, they can be viewed as tools to enhance patients’ daily health and increase healthcare worker capacity.
While next-generation technologies hold great promise, there are also opportunities to scale more diagnostic methods that are effective and available today. For example, cholera rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are low-cost and easy to deploy, yet they remain largely absent from routine surveillance, particularly outside emergency contexts. In 2024, a partnership between Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, UNICEF, the Global Task Force on Cholera Control, FIND, and WHO launched the first large-scale deployment of cholera RDTs, aiming to distribute 1.2 million tests across 14 countries to support faster outbreak detection and more targeted vaccine use.
Match patients with the right healthcare professional the first time to speed up access to appropriate treatment plans
Advanced matching systems could match patients with the most appropriate healthcare professionals, reducing unnecessary appointments and ensuring patients get the right care at the right time and at the right site. This could also prevent complications that would otherwise require costly interventions and multiple future visits.
In a recent survey, nearly three out of five patients in the United States (57 percent) said they have shown up to an appointment with a doctor who lacked the appropriate expertise for their needs, leading to delayed care. Such unnecessary visits clog the system and crowd out ideal patient–provider matches. Advanced matching systems can enhance efficiency by using a hub-and-spoke model, ensuring patients first see primary-care clinicians or other professionals equipped to manage their conditions or order the appropriate workup, while reserving specialist care for complex cases.
In mental health, care managers facilitate a collaborative care model by assessing patient needs first, then appropriately directing patients to seek primary-care providers, psychiatrists, or other specialists based on case complexity. This approach, when supported by the right staffing and technology, can ensure that lower-complexity patients receive timely treatment in lower-acuity settings, freeing up specialists for cases that truly require their expertise. Implementing this model at scale demands transparent, real-time access to provider schedules and profiles across traditionally siloed networks, but it offers remarkable potential to reduce wait times, optimize treatment outcomes, and alleviate mounting pressure on the overburdened healthcare workforce.
Where: Low-barrier healthcare touchpoints are embedded in daily life
Healthcare must shift to more diverse sites of care to meet the complex health challenges of today. One promising approach involves seamlessly integrating healthcare services into the fabric of daily life—transforming routine activities such as going into an office or school attendance into health engagement opportunities. This could make it easier to receive care by creating multiple touchpoints for early intervention and preventive services. Ultimately, this could reduce the number of people that need to see a doctor or land in a hospital for high-acuity care, improving health outcomes.
Strategically locate health screenings and other basic assessments to catch disease before it progresses
By looking at how people live and how they travel, communities can identify the best places for integrated care sites. Care sites integrated into schools in low-income communities in the United States have been shown to improve student health and even academic achievement. School-based health centers (SBHCs) provide essential preventive care services such as comprehensive physical examinations and immunizations, assist in the management of chronic health conditions, and provide reproductive and sexual health services. In Canada, SBHCs that implement these interventions and enhanced physical education report a return on investment (ROI) of over 800 percent. This ROI is driven by the reduction of direct care costs related to chronic disease management for students.
Communities can also consider placing nutritionists or community health workers in supermarkets in neighborhoods with a high prevalence of obesity. These healthcare professionals could provide personalized meal planning, offer guidance on nutrition literacy, and help identify at-risk individuals through basic health assessments and co-morbidity screenings. This novel placement of health services could transform routine grocery shopping into an opportunity not only for health education, but also for early intervention.
Integrate healthcare into workplaces to lower barriers to basic services
In the future, more employers can also play a crucial role in healthcare integration by offering care sites in workplaces. Previous MHI research has found that on-site health clinics at large employers generate positive returns on investment through reduced absenteeism and improved productivity. These workplace health centers can offer primary-care services, preventive screenings, chronic disease management, and mental health support—all accessible during the workday. For smaller employers, shared health spaces in office complexes or industrial parks can provide similar benefits while distributing costs across multiple businesses.
Embedding health touchpoints into daily life can make healthcare more accessible for patients before they need high-acuity care. This shift could help reduce healthcare workforce shortages by redirecting utilization away from costly acute care settings and toward community-based solutions.
Collectively transforming who delivers care, how care is found, and where care is accessed could simultaneously ease the strain on the healthcare workforce while also improving health outcomes.
Conclusion
Eliminating the healthcare worker shortage is a solvable problem and a shared responsibility to the billions of people globally lacking access to essential healthcare.
No one goes through life without facing illness. And when a major illness occurs, people are fortunate if they can benefit from the care and support of a skilled healthcare worker. For people without access to such care, the consequences of illness can be debilitating, costly, and even deadly. The peril is all too real for many, given that healthcare systems globally have a shortage of ten million workers.
That is why addressing the healthcare worker shortage is about more than filling vacancies. It’s also about creating a world where everyone has access to the caregivers—and therefore the care—they need.
According to MHI’s research, eliminating the healthcare worker shortage by 2030 would reduce disease burden by 7 percent and add $1.1 trillion to the global economy. Part of the solution is using the Healthcare Workforce Triangle—interventions for the workforce to grow, thrive, and stay—as a framework to increase the healthcare workforce by about 5.6 million.
Closing the rest of the gap will require a more radical shift by broader society—one that addresses the who, how, and where of healthcare service delivery. This could reduce overall demand for healthcare, particularly in high-acuity, resource-intensive settings, and also improve health outcomes. Achieving lasting impact will be possible only through bold, cross-sectoral action involving governments, healthcare providers, educational institutions, nongovernmental organizations, technology companies, researchers, investors, and other stakeholders.
The global healthcare workforce represents a critical social infrastructure that reaches well beyond healthcare institutions and systems. It is the backbone of societal well-being and development, especially in an increasingly aging world. Investing in the workforce is an investment in society’s future—one defined by better health outcomes, more resilient communities, and shared economic growth.
Only through radical collaboration can the healthcare workforce shortage evolve from a crisis into an opportunity. Seizing the opportunity not only can eliminate the shortage but also would pave the way for a healthier, more resilient, and sustainable world.
