Two if by land, one if by drone
February 16, 2023Are delivery drones set to take off? Under certain conditions—when pooling deliveries doesn’t make practical sense, for example—drones may already be the most cost-effective mode of delivery, say partner Robin Riedel and coauthors. They are also environmentally friendly, with CO2 emissions typically lower than those of electric cars and vans making a single delivery, and significantly lower than those of gasoline-powered vehicles.
To read the article, see “Drones take to the sky, potentially disrupting last-mile delivery,” January 3, 2023.
Mapping virtual care
February 17, 2023Telehealthcare adoption remains much higher than prepandemic levels, but adoption hasn’t been uniform across geographical locations. Partner Alex Harris and coauthors estimate that more than 50 million in-person visits per year could be converted to virtual or telemedicine visits if adoption were extended equally across patient segments. In general, virtual-healthcare adoption is higher in urban areas than rural areas, while patient segments with limited access to in-person care, such as rural counties, still have relatively fewer virtual visits.
To read the article, see “Is virtual care delivering on its promise of improving access?,” January 9, 2023.
Help (really really) wanted
February 15, 2023
The labour market continues to be one of the big riddles of the postpandemic era, find chair of insights and ecosystems and chair of McKinsey Global Institute Sven Smit and colleagues. A drop in labor force participation by roughly 1.6 million explains some of the US labor market tightness, but it doesn’t account for a 3.7 million spike in monthly job openings (compared with the earlier days of the pandemic). Contributing factors include an aging population, a jobs–skills mismatch, and more workers reevaluating what they want from a job—and from life.
To read the article, see “Is virtual care delivering on its promise of improving access?,” January 9, 2023.