Health care nation appears in some high schools

As a futurist I study and produce scenarios. These are short stories about possible futures, visions of what might come to pass and within which participants might see themselves. They are a classic forecasting method. (Check Wikipedia for a good introduction.)

Several years ago I offered once called “Health care nation,” wherein allied health becomes the leading sector of the American economy. In it I imagine how colleges and universities might change. “Health care nation” has appeared in some of my presentations, in a blog post, and a chapter in Academic Next (2020). Audiences usually appreciate it, but without much excitement, seeing it as simply very likely to occur.

I regularly check in on the world to see if “Health Care Nation” is starting to appear. So far so good, as American allied health (i.e., everything in medical and public health, from surgery to psychotherapy to electronic medical records and hospital administration) continues to expand in scope and financial size.

Last month I found a very interesting datapoint for this scenario. It looks like a major donor is trying to make one part of it happen.

There was an interesting presentation at the 2025 ASU-GSV summit about pre-med high schools. I couldn’t be there, so here’s the description: