We have all read commentary on the need for disrupting healthcare, of the concept of consumer-centered care, and that AI and digital health are accelerating the revolution in health. Other articles discuss the health industry’s apathy to change, and of a reluctance by healthcare executives to lead real innovation, despite consensus that major disruption in the health industry is not only necessary, but urgent.
To facilitate a disrupting healthcare mindset … imagine how the healthcare marketplace would look if we were to put it into the hands of consumers. Where each person could choose what health means to them at any given point in their life.
Each person sees and defines their health needs differently to others based on their experiences and preferences. The highly personal nature of health can easily be defined by three aspects:
1) Self-care – what we do for ourselves towards our health. What we eat, if we exercise, how we feel about ourselves, choices in hobbies or vices, to learning about our medications and participating in caring for our conditions.
2) Access to health services – when we need them, how we access them and where they are, and our willingness to pay. Whether its filling scripts, or receiving massage rewards points, to listening and working closely with our health providers for advice or treatment when we need it.
3) Our relationships – the people in our lives. Health is with us wherever we are, at work or home, as parents or with aging parents, with friends who need us or as part of a community.
Each of us uses these three aspects in our own personal healthcare ecosystems.
If a consumer had all of this in the palm of their hand, how would the healthcare marketplace look today as a brand new industry?
