2026 Digital Health Trends: 5 Shifts Shaping Connected Care
In 2026, digital health leaders are moving past “cool tech” and into what matters most: reliable care infrastructure. The market is rewarding solutions that make data actionable, integrate smoothly into existing workflows, and prove measurable value across clinical, operational, and financial outcomes.
Here are five trends that will define the year ahead.
AI becomes operational infrastructure (not a pilot project)
Healthcare AI is shifting from experimentation to embedded workflows—think automation that reduces friction in documentation, triage, coding, and care coordination. The key change in 2026 is how AI is being bought: enterprises want governable, integratable systems, not isolated tools.
The funding market reflects this shift. In the first half of 2025, U.S. digital health startups raised $6.4 billion across 245 deals, with AI-enabled startups capturing the majority of that funding.
What this means for digital health teams in 2026
AI must be measurable in terms of time saved, denials reduced, escalations prevented, and burnout improved.
AI must be operational: embedded in the systems teams already use (EHR, care management, contact center).
AI must be governable: clear oversight, monitoring, and change management.
Interoperability shifts from “data access” to “data readiness”
Interoperability isn’t new — but in 2026, the differentiator is data readiness: the ability to reliably ingest, normalize, validate, and activate data across sources.
With AI and remote monitoring expanding rapidly, organizations are realizing a hard truth: data that isn’t trusted can’t be operationalized. The focus is shifting from “connecting everything” to “connecting what we can act on.”
What this means for connected care
The winners will treat interoperability as a core product capability (not a custom integration project).
Programs will prioritize clean, contextualized data streams that are ready for decision-making.
Actionability matters more than volume.
Remote monitoring becomes “closed-loop care,” not device deployment
RPM in 2026 is less about collecting vitals and more about enabling continuous care:
data → triage → intervention → documentation → outcomes.
The number of devices shipped won’t define programs that succeed, but by how seamlessly monitoring data turns into clinical action without overwhelming staff.
What this means for scale
Prioritize care pathways (hypertension, heart failure, diabetes, post-acute) where monitoring can trigger clear actions.
Design staffing and escalation protocols that fit real-world capacity.
Make patient-generated health data usable where clinicians work, not trapped in dashboards.
Virtual care settles into the hybrid default
Virtual care isn’t “over”—it’s becoming standardized and intentional. In 2026, leading organizations will treat telehealth as one mode in a hybrid system, incorporating asynchronous messaging, video visits, and in-person escalation into the same pathway.
The numbers show sustained usage:
In 2024, 25% of Medicare fee-for-service users utilized a telehealth service, unchanged from 2023.
FAIR Health continues to report telehealth utilization trends and category dominance (especially mental health) in 2024.
What this means for access + operations
Hybrid care models will be designed for operational sustainability, not volume alone.
Virtual-first will become more targeted to specific populations and conditions.
The best virtual experiences will look less like “telehealth” and more like coordinated care.
Security and trust become clinical requirements
In 2026, cybersecurity isn’t just an IT risk — it’s a patient safety and continuity risk. Connected devices, home-based monitoring, third-party integrations, and AI tools all expand the attack surface.
One signal that should be hard to ignore: IBM’s 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Study found that the average cost of a healthcare data breach was $9.77 million (still the highest of any sector).
What this means for digital health leaders
Security needs to be a product feature, not a procurement checkbox.
Audit connected device inventories and vendor integrations on a regular basis.
Build resilient data operations: redundancy, monitoring, and rapid containment.
The 2026 Takeaway: Connected data has to drive connected action
In 2026, the market is rewarding digital health programs that:
Make patient and clinical data usable and trusted,
Integrate across ecosystems without adding burden, and
Translate signals into action across care teams.
Digital health is no longer just innovating; it’s becoming care infrastructure. The organizations that win will treat it that way.