Healthcare at the crossroads: McKinsey’s 2025 Tech Trends point to bioengineering, mobility, and sustainability

This is part two of a two-part series analyzing the findings of the McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2025 report. You can read part one, covering AI in healthcare, here.

The McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2025 spans 13 fields that are poised to redefine global markets. Artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity may dominate headlines, but the report argues that the current healthcare story cannot be told without accounting for breakthroughs in bioengineering, robotics, green technologies, and the future of mobility.

For hospitals and public health systems under increasing pressure, McKinsey’s latest report delivers a blunt message: their ability to endure will depend on how quickly they bring these technologies into daily care and operations.

Bioengineering scoots closer to patient bedsides

Of all the ‘cutting-edge engineering’ categories McKinsey spotlights, bioengineering is the one already reshaping patient care. McKinsey points to advances in gene editing, synthetic biology, and personalized medicine as areas moving from laboratory science to scalable health solutions.

The idea of building custom antibodies from a tumor biopsy has long been a goal in cancer research. The report suggests such treatments are now edging closer to widespread viability as researchers combine molecular engineering with faster, cheaper production methods.

Investment patterns bear this out. After a dip in 2023, equity financing in bioengineering rebounded sharply in 2024, drawing billions even as other life sciences struggled with capital constraints. This momentum is reflected in McKinsey data showing bioengineering attracted $57.3 billion in equity investment in 2024, recovering from the previous year’s decline.

For health systems, the changes are potentially sweeping. The promise of one-time cures for chronic conditions, from sickle cell disease to inherited blindness, could upend treatment models built around long-term disease management. But the economics remain challenging. The $2.2 million price tag for the first FDA-approved CRISPR-based therapy, Casgevy, highlights the tension between scientific progress and affordability.

Robots in surgery, robots in supply chains

Several key developments in robotics are moving out of pilot projects and into hospitals, with clear effects on how care is delivered. The McKinsey report traces the shift from these pilots to real-world adoption, with autonomous systems moving into logistics, pharmacy automation, and surgery.

Robotic arms are already assisting in joint replacements and minimally invasive procedures. The report emphasizes the new ways people and machines can soon work together: wearable exoskeletons to reduce clinician injury, haptic robotics that provide tactile feedback during remote procedures, and autonomous systems in hospital supply chains.

For rural and under-resourced hospitals, robotics may not mean futuristic surgical assistants so much as automation that keeps basic operations running when staff are scarce. A 2019 National Academies report on clinician burnout warned that manual, repetitive tasks, including medication dispensing and patient transport, are among the top drivers of burnout. Robotics could ease those burdens, even if uptake is uneven.

A good kind of buzzing sound

Healthcare is also a proving ground for mobility innovations. McKinsey’s report highlights autonomous drones delivering personalized medications to remote or underserved areas.

In Rwanda, the company Zipline has logged over 100 million autonomous miles delivering blood, vaccines, and medicines by drone. In the U.S., the FAA granted expanded approval in 2023 for UPS Flight Forward and Zipline to operate beyond visual line of sight, opening new pathways for medical logistics.

For U.S. health systems, drone-enabled supply chains could mean faster turnaround for lab results, expanded access to specialty medications in rural counties, and new efficiencies in transplant organ transport, where every minute counts.

Microgrids keep the lights on and the data flowing

Healthcare’s climate footprint is staggering, responsible for 8.5% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions according to multiple authoritative sources, including the National Academy of Medicine. McKinsey’s analysis in this area demonstrates how hospitals and labs are set to become testing grounds for the next wave of electrification, from microgrids to renewable-powered data centers.

The report points to modular microgrids, renewable-powered data centers, and more efficient cooling for energy-hungry labs and imaging suites. Hospitals in California and Texas have already begun experimenting with microgrids to ensure continuity during power outages, a trend McKinsey expects to accelerate as climate shocks mount.

This push aligns with regulatory pressure. The U.S. government’s Health Sector Climate Pledge, signed by more than 140 organizations representing over 960 U.S. hospitals and suppliers, commits signatories to cut emissions in half by 2030. Advanced batteries and electrified HVAC systems will be key to meeting those pledges.

Rural telemedicine relies on space-based connections

While less obvious, McKinsey’s trends report also covers “future of space technologies” and “advanced connectivity” as areas that could overlap with healthcare.

Satellite-enabled broadband is already bridging gaps in rural telemedicine. During the 2023 Maui wildfires, emergency teams used Starlink terminals to maintain telehealth triage when terrestrial networks failed. Space-based sensors are also being used to track climate-driven disease vectors, from mosquito migration to wildfire smoke patterns that exacerbate asthma.

For hospitals increasingly reliant on remote monitoring and home-based care, these connectivity layers are more than infrastructure, they serve as lifelines.

New capital flows hint at public–private health models

In 2024, equity flowing into bioengineering, space technologies, mobility, and sustainability rebounded after a rough 2023, with some of the biggest checks being written out to sustainability technologies.

Fitch Ratings projects nonprofit hospital margins will average between 1% and 2% in 2025. Yet private investment in technologies adjacent to healthcare hints at new public-private partnerships on the horizon. Think of how Operation Warp Speed pooled federal funds with biotech risk capital to deliver COVID-19 vaccines in record time.

Weighing ethics and access against the next wave of innovation

McKinsey’s trends report cautions that adoption of new technology is largely uneven at this point. In healthcare-related domains, most new tech remains in the “experimentation” or “piloting” stage, far from being rolled out for real-world use. That gap is familiar. A decade after Congress poured $30 billion into electronic health records through the HITECH Act, rural hospitals still lagged in adoption. The same risk applies here: without policy incentives, grant programs, and workforce training, the benefits of robotics or bioengineering may cluster in elite institutions.

Despite this challenge, the trajectory is unmistakable. As the trends report notes, these technologies are no longer theoretical. They are emerging in ways that will force health leaders to make hard choices between money, ethics, and access. The next decade of healthcare innovation will likely be written as much in the language of robotics labs and energy grids as in the journals of medical science.

Check out Part 1 – McKinsey’s 2025 tech trends report finds healthcare caught between AI promise and perils