May 9, 2023 • 31 mins
Consumers are looking for wellness solutions that are accessible and simple. They are ditching complex systems of treatment in favor of easy tools for prevention. What’s more, they expect these health tools to fits seamlessly into their day and are delighted when they exist outside of traditional healthcare facilities. So, imagine taking a preventive diagnostic test at a laundromat while waiting for your clothes to dry ... that reality is not too far away.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Stephanie (00:03):
Welcome to what Consumers Want, the podcast that brings the
voice of the consumer to the health care conversation. Are
you interested in getting outside the health care echo chamber?
Using research and insights will explore key health care opportunities
through the eyes of the end consumer. We examine trends
outside of health care that are driving consumer expectations, as
well as what consumers expect from brands now and in
(00:24):
the future. This podcast is brought to you by a
market research firm that unlocks the whole mind for deeper insights.
I'm your host, Stephanie Douglas, and let's find out what
consumers want. Today we are mixing things up a bit
and have brought in a trend expert from our partner Stylist.
(00:44):
In lieu of a health care focused guest, Amelia Miranda
Williams sat with MD strategist Lauren McCabe to understand not
just what consumers want now, but what they will want
from brands in the future. And with that eye on
the future, our question for consumers this month was what
will help you live to 100? Let's hear what people think.
Consumer #1 (01:03):
In cold weather, you might preserve longer.
Consumer #2 (01:07):
I'm just getting out in the open air away from
any at all chemicals, plastics, things like that.
Consumer #3 (01:12):
Movement is medicine.
Consumer #4 (01:13):
You know, tight knit social circles.
Consumer #5 (01:16):
I'm sure it's going to be like AI related.
Consumer #6 (01:18):
Moderation and low stress.
Consumer #7 (01:20):
Once you hit a point where you're like not happy
in life, then you just deteriorate a lot faster.
Consumer #8 (01:25):
Think walking every day.
Consumer #9 (01:27):
And think everyone should do something they enjoy as often
as possible. Happiness Going to let me live to be 100.
Stephanie (01:35):
It's interesting to me that we hear a lot about
wellness right now and that leading to longevity and not
necessarily a reliance on medical advancements or technology that really
tees up what we will hear in this next segment
with Lauren and Amanda as they dig into convenience, culture
and inclusivity movements and reflect on what that means for
the future of health and wellness.
(01:55):
So today we are speaking with Amelia Murano, Williams, a
senior editor for Consumer Attitudes and technology at Stylus. Now,
if you don't know, Stylus is a trends intelligence platform
that uncovers future trends, predicts change, and provides intelligence to
give organizations a true understanding of their consumers. And today,
(02:16):
we're going to talk to Amelia about cross-industry trends impacting
health care. So get ready. Welcome, Amelia. Thank you for
joining us.
Emilia (02:24):
Hi. Thank you so much for having me. Excited for
this conversation.
Stephanie (02:28):
So to begin, can you tell us about yourself and
what you do at Stylus?
Emilia (02:31):
Yeah, of course. So as the senior editor of Consumer
Attitudes and Technology at Stylus, Well, essentially what I do
is analyze what people want from brands and from their
lives in general. You know, we're looking at how they're
responding to changing social norms, current events, things that are
going on around them, the social engagements they have, and
then using the spectrum of insights to really project into
(02:54):
what they're going to want from their lives from product
services in the future. Obviously, health and wellness is a
huge area of focus for us and has been for
a while and I think probably goes without saying that
it is something that we've been increasingly focusing on over
the past three years of living during a pandemic.
Stephanie (03:10):
Thank you. And to start, I want to start broad here.
So from your perspective, what are a few kind of
current consumer trends that you're seeing outside of health care
that you perceive as impacting health care or potentially impacting
health care?
Emilia (03:27):
Yeah, I think one of the most significant trends that
I see poised to break into the health care space
is what we've termed app stylists, self care skepticism or
low key living. And this you could also think of
as a wellness backlash. So it's on the fringes of
health care. They're sitting in the wellness space. But essentially
we're seeing that consumers are really fed up with being
sold pricey therapies that claim to offer them inner peace,
(03:50):
perfect skin, what have you, but really only succeed in
emptying their wallets, you know, especially with inflation. People are
thinking about what they spend their money on and wellness
therapies that don't have a clear return on investment is
not going to be a significant part as much as
it has been in the past. Another way of thinking
about it, you know, people are giving up on GOOP
(04:10):
and said looking to more practical interventions. They're thinking about
things like friendship, exercising for mental health, eating foods that
make them feel good. So, I mean, this is you know,
it does bring us into the idea of health care
here to a certain degree. I mean, these practices that
people are embracing are the building blocks of good health.
And I think with this, you know, we're seeing a
massive mindset shift around what prevention means within health care
(04:33):
as well, both on the part of consumers and the
system in more generally. So I think longevity here is
an interesting area where we're seeing that crossover come in.
We've been really interesting to interested to watch longevity shift
from something that's really the preserve of multimillionaires like Jeff
Bezos into something that is a little bit more accessible
(04:54):
for consumers. So we're watching for the opening of Israel's
Sheba Medical Center. To her longevity center later this year,
and it's going to let people go, undergo rigorous three
hour entry appointments, then two week long habit tracking and
then getting a customized course of treatment with the aim
at increasing their longevity. Their health spans around four core areas.
(05:15):
Obviously that's still quite a limited thing. It's not exactly mass,
but you know, I think even the fact that we're
now seeing consumer health testing kits for things like allergies
and fitness available at CVS is a real significant shift
where we're seeing people spending less on these wellness therapies
and more on things that have a practical impact. So
(05:36):
it's just kind of one of the areas that we're
watching where we're seeing consumer attitudes around well-being shift over
into health care. But I think it's going to be
a really significant mindset shift to watch and is something
that will really impact all areas of how we want
to think about our health, well-being, pleasure interactions.
Stephanie (05:55):
Wow. I mean, that's a really great insight because it
makes me think that health care entities, you know, with
the data, the research, the scientific background that they have,
really are probably poised to meet that consumer demand and
potentially even pioneer their own consumer products that are backed
by science. So that's really an interesting shift. One thing
(06:16):
I wanted to ask and you kind of mentioned it,
but how are consumer perceptions about their health and wellness changing?
Emilia (06:25):
Yeah, I mean, I think in tandem with this idea
of self care skepticism, really the biggest consumer perception shift
we're seeing is around that appreciation of evidence based interventions, which, yeah,
you know, the data that health care companies have is
a fantastic way to bring that to consumers. And we're
seeing this take multiple forms. I think it's still to
a certain degree in in early stage, you know, we
(06:47):
have well, YouTube that is now certifying medical professionals and
prioritizing the results in search. But I think there's also
an interesting, softer side here that health care could take
a page from. We're seeing people increase their focus on
friendship and social wellness, but that's really being backed up
by lots of research that's coming out to show that,
(07:08):
you know, being with people, forming meaningful connections is really
essential for our longevity, driving people to reassess how they
prioritize social interactions more broadly.
Stephanie (07:18):
Yeah, that's really, really interesting. And along the lines, like
you mentioned this a little bit earlier, but kind of
this focus on prevention, do you have any deeper insight specifically,
I guess, for health care entities, which, you know, they
too are really focused on prevention? Any trends along that
line that we should be aware about or any specific companies,
(07:39):
organizations that are innovating in that area of prevention?
Emilia (07:43):
Yeah, I think that's a really great question. I mean,
there's so much that goes into prevention when we talk
about health care, but I think some of the most
interesting things I've been seeing recently are quite high end
options here. So the first thing that comes to mind
is fountain life, which is redesigning the idea of a
primary care provider all about doing a battery of really
(08:04):
in-depth diagnostic test to be able to detect disease before
symptoms are manifesting physically. So the idea is that you'll
do really in-depth blood tests, really in-depth MRIs and just
being able to pinpoint disease as it happens. So I
think that is one interesting example of preventative care that
we're seeing come to some very luxury well-heeled consumers. But
(08:30):
I think it's also interesting to think about some more
nation therapies that we're seeing arise as well. I'm particularly
interested in how AI is going to help make lots
of these diagnostic tools more accessible to more people. So
two companies that we recently came across while doing research
for report that we wrote called Advancing MedTech, used AI
to detect early stage breast cancer. So this is a
(08:52):
company called Gabby. Gabby. And then there's a company called Clearly,
which does the same for heart disease that c l e.
R l y. So I think it's really interesting to
see how these companies are trying to make that prevention
a little bit more accessible for people. Gabby in particular,
is going to be launching as a workplace benefit this year.
(09:14):
So I think it's going to be fantastic to see
how we can get more of these services to people
to be able to make them take a more proactive
take on their health. But at the same time, those
are eventually going to need to come into the health
care space. I think it's just getting it to a
point where there is the funds available for people to
access them.
Stephanie (09:34):
Exactly. And I wanted to probe a little bit more
along that line. So wearables, wearable devices that of course
track your health and your vitals have been such a
big thing that so many brands have been innovating around
and putting out new products. Any insights on where that's
going and any thoughts on maybe integration into healthcare traditionally
(09:56):
into traditional systems or maybe outside?
Emilia (09:59):
I think the wearable space actually really interesting to watch.
And I think we've kind of only scratched the surface
of what's happening with them. So some of the really
interesting ones that we've seen here recently are trying to
move away from screen based wearables and things that are
really data driven to try and think of almost softer
ways of monitoring your health. So in January, in January,
(10:22):
Stylus published a report called Good Tech. We looked really
broadly about how technology can help us feel good, not
just make a screen addicted and wearables. I was really
surprised were quite a large focus of this report for us,
but perhaps not for the reasons that we expected. So
one of the best examples I thought we showcased was
called Happy Ring. This is a screen free ring that
(10:42):
gathers data around things like stress levels, heart rate variability.
So it's not about giving you arbitrary metrics to track.
You're not trying to bring your stress levels to a
certain place. You're not trying to get your heart rate
to a certain level, but it's trying to invite you
to reflect on how you feel and discuss it with
other people, be that they're happy, ring wearers through an
app or with your family and friends. And so I
(11:03):
think it's really interesting to think about how we can
use wearables as a way to just make us more
mindful of our own behaviors and help you develop your
own health care and self-care practices. But that being said,
obviously there is a really interesting way of thinking. You know,
how can it integrate into that traditional space, like you said?
And I think there is still a lot to be
(11:25):
done here. Lots of, you know, current options like Apple's
encouraging people to bring data to their from their watches
to their doctors doesn't necessarily make it to the level
that we're going to see the critical threshold of wearables
being extraordinarily valuable for health care in every sense of
the way. I think part of this is because even
(11:46):
though the technology is, you know, super cool and interesting
and we get like intriguing data from it, it's not
always incredibly accurate. Know I'm sure I'm not the only
one who's looked at their smartwatch heart rate data and
just seen it's very inaccurate. You can perceive it quite
easily with this. I just want to touch on the
fact that, you know, it's really worthwhile to note that
lots of the devices that do use optical sensors for
(12:08):
heart rate are less accurate on people with darker skin tones,
though we are seeing some centers like the one from
bio intelligence that was released in November cast a broader
spectrum of light to get more accurate readings, still limited
applications for these. So we'll really need to be able
to make sure that the data that we're gathering is
really fantastic in order to make sure that it has
(12:29):
a very applicable setting in health care. But just want
to mention one other thing here, which I think is
that we're going to also need to lengthen the amount
of time that people are looking and gathering data. So
it's not about seeing a single anomaly, a single day
that the reading is off, but thinking what patterns are
we looking at over time? And I think I will
(12:51):
be another factor to consider here. And I mean the
algorithms for wearables we're seeing get so much more advanced
really quickly. I think WHOOP has captured so many people's
interests with its ability to calculate recovery. But we're seeing
even more interesting things come out as well. So it
was recently at CES, I was really impressed by this
company called Citizen, which released a new smartwatch that uses
(13:13):
machine learning to identify the wearer's unique chronotype through a
series of two week alertness tests that happened at different
periods of the day. And these were designed in partnership
with NASA. So there's quite a credibility uplift there. But
it's a really interesting example of how brands can think
to lengthen out this idea of gathering data and using
AI to spot patterns over the long term. Now, this
(13:35):
example is for purely focused on energy, so it's not
necessarily has a health care application, but I think it
is a good example to think about. And keep in
mind as we're thinking of how we can track longer
term issues and bring a good data to our health
care providers with wearables.
Stephanie (13:53):
Yeah, I want to shift focus now to dive deeper
into mental wellness, which has been a trend that we've
been talking about and tracking as well here at EMDR.
So to start, can you just discuss their overall overall
rise in consumer interest, in mental well-being and like what
sparked it?
Emilia (14:12):
Yeah, I mean, think we can't discuss mental wellbeing and
the interest in it without discussing the mental health crisis.
We all know it was brewing before the pandemic, but
has been hugely exacerbated by it. So, you know, there's
no one type of person, one experience, one exacerbating factor.
That's really attributed to why we're seeing so much interest
in mental wellbeing alongside rising rates of mental illness from anxiety, depression, stress,
(14:37):
so many other issues. I think one interesting thing that
we've been thinking about is young people missing out on milestones, graduations,
prom being a really large factor. And even with this,
there's so many responses to it that can make it
become an issue that impacts one's mental wellbeing. You know,
for some people, they feel like they've missed out on
rites of passages, so they haven't fully graduated to the.
(14:59):
Phase of their lives. But there's also the fact that
it's missing out on social opportunities, on common bonding experiences.
And it goes back to the importance of social wellness
that we were talking about earlier. But I think also
there's one element here, two that we haven't discussed that
isn't discussed as much. That's just there's so much greater
awareness around the many different issues and how people are
(15:22):
impacted by their mental health and by their mental wellbeing,
that we just have a greater understanding of what it means.
So it may seem like there's more people who are
either talking about it or suffering from mental health struggles,
but there's also just a larger ability to discuss. It's
becoming slowly less taboo.
Stephanie (15:41):
I did want to ask you specifically, though, about the
gap in mental wellness services and if there are any
kind of innovative companies or platforms that are trying to
fill those gaps, because in traditional health care, one of
the problems that so many health care systems are struggling
with is not having enough mental wellness providers or being
(16:03):
able to give access, easy access to consumers for those services.
So who's filling in the gaps?
Emilia (16:11):
Yeah, I mean, I think that's a great question because
as much as people are talking about it more and
there is more awareness building, there's still so many gaps
in services. And I think not just, you know, gaps
in services, but there's also many underserved communities that can
be addressed as well when that's just, you know, on
a discussion basis. So men in general still largely underserved
(16:33):
when it comes to mental health discussions. And I think
here there's some really interesting brand partnerships that we're seeing now.
This is, you know, one level that's not very, you know, clinical.
It's sort of the first step to, you know, talking
and opening up. But, you know, some things to be
aware of. So we've seen the company Bevel, which is
a black owned men's grooming brand partner with the digital
(16:55):
therapy platform Alchemy Alchemy, to give customers three months of
free digital therapy. This is really all about trying to
let black men feel like they can have a place
to open up and discuss their feelings. So again, not
necessarily therapy in a or it is therapy, but not
necessarily like clinical mental health services. I think another really
(17:19):
interesting example of this here, too, is Harry's grooming brand
made a $5 million donation April 20th, 22 to launch
Team Changing Minds. It's a network of mentors trained to
help young men who are experiencing mental health struggles. So again,
it's more of like a first line of defense to
see can we refer you to more help if you
need it? And I think more broadly, we're seeing the
(17:41):
interesting rise of the empath units and hospitals. So giving
a place for people to go if they are really struggling,
that's not the emergency room. So that's another really interesting
area that we're seeing arise. But yeah, it's really the
people who are seeing filling the gaps, so to speak,
are really these frontline services thinking, you know, how can
I triage all of the issues that are going on
(18:03):
for kids as well? There's a company called Maru for
Maru for Schools that's trying to help teachers be better
frontline triage. So trying to think, well, okay, can I
notice that this kid is having a pattern of poor
mental health and can I refer them to someone who
can help them in the way that they need? So
there's still a lot more needed on that actual treatment
(18:25):
side further on. But I think there's some very interesting
frontline examples that are arising here. And again, it's interesting
to see how they can also fill in some of
the gaps in services just for people who are experiencing
higher rates perhaps of mental health issues or aren't being
addressed by the the social media fueled conversations that I
mentioned earlier, I.
Stephanie (18:45):
Wanted to now touch upon one of your innovation platforms
that you cover as stylish, which is inclusivity. And to start,
I'd love to hear your perspective on, gosh, how are
consumers perception about inclusivity changing and what are they right now?
Emilia (19:03):
Yeah, I think this is a great question and even,
you know, starting to approach it, it feels it feels
so big, right? Like inclusivity is so many things and
we so frequently approach it from specific groups or specific identities.
But I think what we're seeing is that it's actually
much broader than that, and consumers are really leading the
shift here. So I mean, from a very basic level,
(19:25):
what we're seeing is consumers are much more likely to
expect and call out brands on their inclusivity, practices or
lack thereof. They want inclusivity to be something that is
less visualized, more an ethos that is made visible through
one's actions. You know, people are much more aware about
concepts like performative allyship, and they're don't want to see
that happening both with companies or with themselves, and they're
(19:47):
calling each other out on it as well. But I think, again,
really the most important thing to think here is that
we're not talking about inclusivity as something for specific groups
to be made more inclusive necessarily. Early, though, that is
definitely an issue that we are addressing and that individual
people are interested in. But when we're talking about inclusivity,
it's a much broader ethos and thinking about how can
(20:09):
we make a range of viewpoints available to people and
seen as equally valuable.
Stephanie (20:15):
Thank you for that and I'd love to hear some
examples of how brands are embracing inclusive inclusivity specifically, and
do consumers think they are successful?
Emilia (20:26):
Yeah, I think the best brands when it comes to
embracing inclusivity are, you know, reflecting the consumer approach. They're
treating it as a practice, not a target to hit.
So that really means weaving inclusion equity into their operations
from hiring processes through to how they engage with consumers
or patients. Obviously there's so many different perspectives to take here,
(20:49):
but I think from the angle of health, the inclusion
theme that we're seeing come up quite frequently is cultural competence,
which is a really interesting one. And again, touches on
so many different identities and viewpoints. So really thinking about
how health brands providers incorporate the impact of social determinants
of health and culturally moulded ways of discussing wellbeing, health
(21:11):
care into their practices. We just explored this topic in
a report called Culturally Competent Health Care touched on many
of these issues, and we found some really compelling companies
that are doing some really great work here, which was
very encouraging to see. So one of the most interesting
ones we came across is called Violet. They run upskilling
(21:31):
courses that discuss how racism appears in health care and
bias manifest and provider language. And with this, it's also
teaching doctors tips on how to provide affirming care for
people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. So really giving people practical,
tangible techniques to take to their own health care practice
(21:51):
and feed onto patients. But engaging with patients directly. We
also have companies like Spira Health and Safety Block, which
are focused on lengthening the health spans for patients of color.
They vet all their providers for cultural competence, which I
think is a really interesting idea that we could see
being fed throughout any provider directory. You know, it goes
(22:11):
beyond language, but actually, do you have experience in engaging
with people from a variety of cultural backgrounds? Are there
specific areas that you are particularly that you identify with yourself?
Could be a really fantastic way of thinking about this
as well. Bringing language into the equation. We have companies
like Su Vida Health, Zocalo, Health. They provide Latinx communities
with both Spanish language providers, but also services that are
(22:34):
intended to reflect cultural family roles. So thinking about how
caregiving can be brought into this conversation, which is a
really interesting area that we're watching more broadly, I think
also important to think about when we're thinking about inclusivity
and cultural competence. That's not just about race and ethnicity. Gender,
sexual orientation also play a really large role in expanding
(22:54):
the inclusive services that need to be provided to people,
especially as we think young people are more likely than
ever to identify as non-binary or LGBTQ+. Really good example
here is folks flex. They connect patients to LGBTQ+ friendly clinicians.
They provide inclusive community support, gender affirming medications such as
(23:18):
hormone therapy, and they're quite widespread. I mean, they operate
now in 42 states. They plan to expand nationwide. So
it's great to see that that is gaining traction. There's
also some interesting crossover here with other industries as well.
So as we were doing this culturally competent health care
report that I mentioned, we came across a really fantastic
example from this US neobank daylight and they offer financial
(23:41):
guidance for family planning, consultations for same sex and gender
queer couples. So helping them think about how they'll fund
processes such as IVF or surrogacy. So thinking about how
health care crosses over into all of these other industries
and how those can be made more inclusive as well.
Stephanie (23:56):
Wow. Thank you for that. I do find it interesting
that you know, consumers now are searching for providers by
kind of their cultural competency, like are they able to
work with people like me? You know, And that, I think,
is a really important thing that traditional health care needs
to pay attention to. Okay. I want to talk about
(24:19):
our next topic, which is convenience culture. So convenience is
a major trend that health care entities have been paying
attention to a bit of time now. And so I'd
love to probe your insight or your thoughts on that. Specifically,
how are consumer expectations around convenience changing right now?
Emilia (24:40):
Yeah, I think that's a really interesting question because so
much of the conversations that we have on convenience feel
like they've been based on apps and trying to make
things happen more quickly. And I think that's a very
interesting thing to think about with health care as well, right?
Like Zach Doc has sort of been the convenient thing
that we've. For health care for a long time. But
(25:00):
I think that we'll sort of see a pivot to
thinking about more blended ways of accessing health care and
how health care can really integrate with our everyday routines
and our everyday spaces. I look here to Amazon's recent
acquisition of one medical. You know, I think there is
potential future where we could see, you know, blending health
care and accessing that integrated with shopping, you know, and
(25:22):
thinking about how that's all merging together into one just
fabric of life. So company Fabric health is a really
good example here. So they host pop up preventative care services,
things like mammograms, blood tests at venues that are easily
accessible to people. And will they be spending a long
amount of time like laundromats? So I think we're going
to see more of this kind of embedded care be
(25:44):
something that terms convenience for people within health care. So
thinking less, I have to go to a particular space
and more you know, health care just fits into my
everyday life and routine. And of course, it's something I do.
And I think this also is like reflecting blended living
that we're having more broadly and something that's really been
catalyzed by the fact that many more people have been
(26:05):
allowed to work from home during the pandemic or even
just rethinking their routines more broadly. And, you know, this
takes us a little bit outside of health care, but
in a way that's still very relevant for convenience and
thinking about the future of work. In all of the
research that we've done over the past few years about work,
I think the takeaway that struck with stuck with us
the most is that people don't necessarily want to be
(26:28):
able to control where they work. It's less important than
being able to control when they work and because people
want to intersperse, you know, work their professional responsibilities with errands,
social meetings, caregiving, exercise, health care appointments doesn't necessarily mean,
you know, working less, just the ability to follow the
peaks and trowels of one's own productivity rather than following
(26:51):
an external schedule and trying to think of how do
I make the things that I need to do convenient
to me and my schedule?
Stephanie (26:57):
That's really interesting, especially the idea of convenience becoming something
that's just integrated in your daily routine rather than like,
Let's just do it faster, let's just do it quicker.
That's really, really illuminating. Thank you. Okay, I have one
more question. It's a big one. So if you could
pick one defining consumer trend that will fundamentally disrupt how
(27:20):
all industries operate and including health care, what would it
be and why?
Emilia (27:26):
I mean, it's so hard to say. I think one
particular trend because so many of these trends interweave onto
each other and piggyback off of each other. I think
the trend that's kind of underlines everything that we've discussed
today and really how all industries are going to operate
in the future is what we're calling deceleration. You know,
low key living phenomenon that I mentioned at the beginning
(27:47):
of our conversation. People want to slow down their routines,
limit stress, limit their environmental impacts, save money, prioritize enjoyable activities.
And it's all about thinking, you know, not necessarily how
can I do less, but how can I do what
I enjoy and do it in a smart way? You know,
self care skepticism is all about going back to the
idea of health and well-being basics, social wellness. It's all
(28:10):
about forgetting fancy therapies and intervention and prioritizing uplifting interactions.
Sustainability is all about prioritizing those really basic behaviors. So
it's thinking, how can I focus less on the really large,
you know, moonshot goals for myself, for the world that
needs to be accomplished and think, well, what action can
I take now in order to promote personal social planetary health?
(28:33):
So I think it's this focus on the basics that's
going to be kind of the disruption coming over the
next few years.
Stephanie (28:39):
Very cool. Amelia, is there anything else that you want
to share with us about health, wellness? Any specific trend
that maybe we didn't cover today? You know.
Emilia (28:49):
I think the only thing that I we've been noting
in health care that we're, you know, tracking is the
presence of AI in health care, particularly from the perspective
of how patients feel about it. We talked a little
bit about companies like Gaby and clearly bringing using AI
to speed up early disease detection. But I think it's
(29:09):
something that companies are going to have to grapple with
on a much broader level. Again, we were recently working
on this report Advancing MedTech, and what struck us as
we were doing it was this gap that we saw
between the funding implementation, consumer awareness and embrace of AI
within clinical settings. And we're particularly struck by some research
from South Korea that suggested that people really don't want
(29:31):
AI to play a part at all in their medical diagnosis.
And yet, you know, as soon as you dip your
toes into the potential of what it can do within
health to speed up analysis, get these diagnoses as to
patients faster, integrate new bodies of research, accelerate drug development.
It goes on and on. And you can see how
AI tools become extremely consequential for health care. So I
(29:52):
think it's going to be really interesting to see over
the next few years, next decade. How companies and health
care makes AI seem accessible and beneficial to patients. Because
right now I think that it clearly isn't there. And
there's a little bit of that digital mistrust. So making
it seem like something that is really worthwhile to people
(30:14):
and trustworthy is going to be really important for health
care to do. And I'm really interested to see how
that happens.
Stephanie (30:20):
Final question for you is if listeners want to learn
more about bias, where should they go?
Emilia (30:25):
Yeah, so you can go to Stylist. We have some
free resources available on our resources tab. If you're interested
in just dipping your toes into some of the insights
we have available. There's also plenty more information there where
you can access, schedule a call and schedule a demonstration
to see how our platform works. We are publishing a
lot on LinkedIn, doing LinkedIn lives for some of our
(30:48):
top key trends, so keep in touch with us on
social media as well. Awesome.
Stephanie (30:53):
Thank you.
Emilia (30:54):
Fantastic. Thank you so much.
Consumer #6 (30:56):
We'd like to give a big thank you to our
partner stylist in Amelia for being a guest on our
podcast today. Next month we will be talking about diversity,
equity and inclusion. If you would like a primer on
where AI efforts are taking the health care industry, you
can sign up for our downloadable empathy whitepaper linked in
the show notes.
Stephanie (31:18):
All right, you guys, thanks so much for tuning in.
If you like what you heard, please share rate and
review on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcasting platform. For
more content about simplifying health care, visit Inc.com. That's Inc.com.
This show is produced by Shift Forward Health, The Channel
for Change Makers. Subscribe to Shift Forward Help on your
(31:38):
favorite podcast app and you'll be subscribed to our entire
library of shows. See our full lineup at Shift Forward
Health one subscription all the podcasts you need and it's
all for free. We'll see you next time on what
Consumers want.
Welcome to what Consumers Want, the podcast that brings the
voice of the consumer to the health care conversation. Are
you interested in getting outside the health care echo chamber?
Using research and insights will explore key health care opportunities
through the eyes of the end consumer. We examine trends
outside of health care that are driving consumer expectations, as
well as what consumers expect from brands now and in
(00:24):
the future. This podcast is brought to you by a
market research firm that unlocks the whole mind for deeper insights.
I'm your host, Stephanie Douglas, and let's find out what
consumers want. Today we are mixing things up a bit
and have brought in a trend expert from our partner Stylist.
(00:44):
In lieu of a health care focused guest, Amelia Miranda
Williams sat with MD strategist Lauren McCabe to understand not
just what consumers want now, but what they will want
from brands in the future. And with that eye on
the future, our question for consumers this month was what
will help you live to 100? Let's hear what people think.
Consumer #1 (01:03):
In cold weather, you might preserve longer.
Consumer #2 (01:07):
I'm just getting out in the open air away from
any at all chemicals, plastics, things like that.
Consumer #3 (01:12):
Movement is medicine.
Consumer #4 (01:13):
You know, tight knit social circles.
Consumer #5 (01:16):
I'm sure it's going to be like AI related.
Consumer #6 (01:18):
Moderation and low stress.
Consumer #7 (01:20):
Once you hit a point where you're like not happy
in life, then you just deteriorate a lot faster.
Consumer #8 (01:25):
Think walking every day.
Consumer #9 (01:27):
And think everyone should do something they enjoy as often
as possible. Happiness Going to let me live to be 100.
Stephanie (01:35):
It's interesting to me that we hear a lot about
wellness right now and that leading to longevity and not
necessarily a reliance on medical advancements or technology that really
tees up what we will hear in this next segment
with Lauren and Amanda as they dig into convenience, culture
and inclusivity movements and reflect on what that means for
the future of health and wellness.
(01:55):
So today we are speaking with Amelia Murano, Williams, a
senior editor for Consumer Attitudes and technology at Stylus. Now,
if you don't know, Stylus is a trends intelligence platform
that uncovers future trends, predicts change, and provides intelligence to
give organizations a true understanding of their consumers. And today,
(02:16):
we're going to talk to Amelia about cross-industry trends impacting
health care. So get ready. Welcome, Amelia. Thank you for
joining us.
Emilia (02:24):
Hi. Thank you so much for having me. Excited for
this conversation.
Stephanie (02:28):
So to begin, can you tell us about yourself and
what you do at Stylus?
Emilia (02:31):
Yeah, of course. So as the senior editor of Consumer
Attitudes and Technology at Stylus, Well, essentially what I do
is analyze what people want from brands and from their
lives in general. You know, we're looking at how they're
responding to changing social norms, current events, things that are
going on around them, the social engagements they have, and
then using the spectrum of insights to really project into
(02:54):
what they're going to want from their lives from product
services in the future. Obviously, health and wellness is a
huge area of focus for us and has been for
a while and I think probably goes without saying that
it is something that we've been increasingly focusing on over
the past three years of living during a pandemic.
Stephanie (03:10):
Thank you. And to start, I want to start broad here.
So from your perspective, what are a few kind of
current consumer trends that you're seeing outside of health care
that you perceive as impacting health care or potentially impacting
health care?
Emilia (03:27):
Yeah, I think one of the most significant trends that
I see poised to break into the health care space
is what we've termed app stylists, self care skepticism or
low key living. And this you could also think of
as a wellness backlash. So it's on the fringes of
health care. They're sitting in the wellness space. But essentially
we're seeing that consumers are really fed up with being
sold pricey therapies that claim to offer them inner peace,
(03:50):
perfect skin, what have you, but really only succeed in
emptying their wallets, you know, especially with inflation. People are
thinking about what they spend their money on and wellness
therapies that don't have a clear return on investment is
not going to be a significant part as much as
it has been in the past. Another way of thinking
about it, you know, people are giving up on GOOP
(04:10):
and said looking to more practical interventions. They're thinking about
things like friendship, exercising for mental health, eating foods that
make them feel good. So, I mean, this is you know,
it does bring us into the idea of health care
here to a certain degree. I mean, these practices that
people are embracing are the building blocks of good health.
And I think with this, you know, we're seeing a
massive mindset shift around what prevention means within health care
(04:33):
as well, both on the part of consumers and the
system in more generally. So I think longevity here is
an interesting area where we're seeing that crossover come in.
We've been really interesting to interested to watch longevity shift
from something that's really the preserve of multimillionaires like Jeff
Bezos into something that is a little bit more accessible
(04:54):
for consumers. So we're watching for the opening of Israel's
Sheba Medical Center. To her longevity center later this year,
and it's going to let people go, undergo rigorous three
hour entry appointments, then two week long habit tracking and
then getting a customized course of treatment with the aim
at increasing their longevity. Their health spans around four core areas.
(05:15):
Obviously that's still quite a limited thing. It's not exactly mass,
but you know, I think even the fact that we're
now seeing consumer health testing kits for things like allergies
and fitness available at CVS is a real significant shift
where we're seeing people spending less on these wellness therapies
and more on things that have a practical impact. So
(05:36):
it's just kind of one of the areas that we're
watching where we're seeing consumer attitudes around well-being shift over
into health care. But I think it's going to be
a really significant mindset shift to watch and is something
that will really impact all areas of how we want
to think about our health, well-being, pleasure interactions.
Stephanie (05:55):
Wow. I mean, that's a really great insight because it
makes me think that health care entities, you know, with
the data, the research, the scientific background that they have,
really are probably poised to meet that consumer demand and
potentially even pioneer their own consumer products that are backed
by science. So that's really an interesting shift. One thing
(06:16):
I wanted to ask and you kind of mentioned it,
but how are consumer perceptions about their health and wellness changing?
Emilia (06:25):
Yeah, I mean, I think in tandem with this idea
of self care skepticism, really the biggest consumer perception shift
we're seeing is around that appreciation of evidence based interventions, which, yeah,
you know, the data that health care companies have is
a fantastic way to bring that to consumers. And we're
seeing this take multiple forms. I think it's still to
a certain degree in in early stage, you know, we
(06:47):
have well, YouTube that is now certifying medical professionals and
prioritizing the results in search. But I think there's also
an interesting, softer side here that health care could take
a page from. We're seeing people increase their focus on
friendship and social wellness, but that's really being backed up
by lots of research that's coming out to show that,
(07:08):
you know, being with people, forming meaningful connections is really
essential for our longevity, driving people to reassess how they
prioritize social interactions more broadly.
Stephanie (07:18):
Yeah, that's really, really interesting. And along the lines, like
you mentioned this a little bit earlier, but kind of
this focus on prevention, do you have any deeper insight specifically,
I guess, for health care entities, which, you know, they
too are really focused on prevention? Any trends along that
line that we should be aware about or any specific companies,
(07:39):
organizations that are innovating in that area of prevention?
Emilia (07:43):
Yeah, I think that's a really great question. I mean,
there's so much that goes into prevention when we talk
about health care, but I think some of the most
interesting things I've been seeing recently are quite high end
options here. So the first thing that comes to mind
is fountain life, which is redesigning the idea of a
primary care provider all about doing a battery of really
(08:04):
in-depth diagnostic test to be able to detect disease before
symptoms are manifesting physically. So the idea is that you'll
do really in-depth blood tests, really in-depth MRIs and just
being able to pinpoint disease as it happens. So I
think that is one interesting example of preventative care that
we're seeing come to some very luxury well-heeled consumers. But
(08:30):
I think it's also interesting to think about some more
nation therapies that we're seeing arise as well. I'm particularly
interested in how AI is going to help make lots
of these diagnostic tools more accessible to more people. So
two companies that we recently came across while doing research
for report that we wrote called Advancing MedTech, used AI
to detect early stage breast cancer. So this is a
(08:52):
company called Gabby. Gabby. And then there's a company called Clearly,
which does the same for heart disease that c l e.
R l y. So I think it's really interesting to
see how these companies are trying to make that prevention
a little bit more accessible for people. Gabby in particular,
is going to be launching as a workplace benefit this year.
(09:14):
So I think it's going to be fantastic to see
how we can get more of these services to people
to be able to make them take a more proactive
take on their health. But at the same time, those
are eventually going to need to come into the health
care space. I think it's just getting it to a
point where there is the funds available for people to
access them.
Stephanie (09:34):
Exactly. And I wanted to probe a little bit more
along that line. So wearables, wearable devices that of course
track your health and your vitals have been such a
big thing that so many brands have been innovating around
and putting out new products. Any insights on where that's
going and any thoughts on maybe integration into healthcare traditionally
(09:56):
into traditional systems or maybe outside?
Emilia (09:59):
I think the wearable space actually really interesting to watch.
And I think we've kind of only scratched the surface
of what's happening with them. So some of the really
interesting ones that we've seen here recently are trying to
move away from screen based wearables and things that are
really data driven to try and think of almost softer
ways of monitoring your health. So in January, in January,
(10:22):
Stylus published a report called Good Tech. We looked really
broadly about how technology can help us feel good, not
just make a screen addicted and wearables. I was really
surprised were quite a large focus of this report for us,
but perhaps not for the reasons that we expected. So
one of the best examples I thought we showcased was
called Happy Ring. This is a screen free ring that
(10:42):
gathers data around things like stress levels, heart rate variability.
So it's not about giving you arbitrary metrics to track.
You're not trying to bring your stress levels to a
certain place. You're not trying to get your heart rate
to a certain level, but it's trying to invite you
to reflect on how you feel and discuss it with
other people, be that they're happy, ring wearers through an
app or with your family and friends. And so I
(11:03):
think it's really interesting to think about how we can
use wearables as a way to just make us more
mindful of our own behaviors and help you develop your
own health care and self-care practices. But that being said,
obviously there is a really interesting way of thinking. You know,
how can it integrate into that traditional space, like you said?
And I think there is still a lot to be
(11:25):
done here. Lots of, you know, current options like Apple's
encouraging people to bring data to their from their watches
to their doctors doesn't necessarily make it to the level
that we're going to see the critical threshold of wearables
being extraordinarily valuable for health care in every sense of
the way. I think part of this is because even
(11:46):
though the technology is, you know, super cool and interesting
and we get like intriguing data from it, it's not
always incredibly accurate. Know I'm sure I'm not the only
one who's looked at their smartwatch heart rate data and
just seen it's very inaccurate. You can perceive it quite
easily with this. I just want to touch on the
fact that, you know, it's really worthwhile to note that
lots of the devices that do use optical sensors for
(12:08):
heart rate are less accurate on people with darker skin tones,
though we are seeing some centers like the one from
bio intelligence that was released in November cast a broader
spectrum of light to get more accurate readings, still limited
applications for these. So we'll really need to be able
to make sure that the data that we're gathering is
really fantastic in order to make sure that it has
(12:29):
a very applicable setting in health care. But just want
to mention one other thing here, which I think is
that we're going to also need to lengthen the amount
of time that people are looking and gathering data. So
it's not about seeing a single anomaly, a single day
that the reading is off, but thinking what patterns are
we looking at over time? And I think I will
(12:51):
be another factor to consider here. And I mean the
algorithms for wearables we're seeing get so much more advanced
really quickly. I think WHOOP has captured so many people's
interests with its ability to calculate recovery. But we're seeing
even more interesting things come out as well. So it
was recently at CES, I was really impressed by this
company called Citizen, which released a new smartwatch that uses
(13:13):
machine learning to identify the wearer's unique chronotype through a
series of two week alertness tests that happened at different
periods of the day. And these were designed in partnership
with NASA. So there's quite a credibility uplift there. But
it's a really interesting example of how brands can think
to lengthen out this idea of gathering data and using
AI to spot patterns over the long term. Now, this
(13:35):
example is for purely focused on energy, so it's not
necessarily has a health care application, but I think it
is a good example to think about. And keep in
mind as we're thinking of how we can track longer
term issues and bring a good data to our health
care providers with wearables.
Stephanie (13:53):
Yeah, I want to shift focus now to dive deeper
into mental wellness, which has been a trend that we've
been talking about and tracking as well here at EMDR.
So to start, can you just discuss their overall overall
rise in consumer interest, in mental well-being and like what
sparked it?
Emilia (14:12):
Yeah, I mean, think we can't discuss mental wellbeing and
the interest in it without discussing the mental health crisis.
We all know it was brewing before the pandemic, but
has been hugely exacerbated by it. So, you know, there's
no one type of person, one experience, one exacerbating factor.
That's really attributed to why we're seeing so much interest
in mental wellbeing alongside rising rates of mental illness from anxiety, depression, stress,
(14:37):
so many other issues. I think one interesting thing that
we've been thinking about is young people missing out on milestones, graduations,
prom being a really large factor. And even with this,
there's so many responses to it that can make it
become an issue that impacts one's mental wellbeing. You know,
for some people, they feel like they've missed out on
rites of passages, so they haven't fully graduated to the.
(14:59):
Phase of their lives. But there's also the fact that
it's missing out on social opportunities, on common bonding experiences.
And it goes back to the importance of social wellness
that we were talking about earlier. But I think also
there's one element here, two that we haven't discussed that
isn't discussed as much. That's just there's so much greater
awareness around the many different issues and how people are
(15:22):
impacted by their mental health and by their mental wellbeing,
that we just have a greater understanding of what it means.
So it may seem like there's more people who are
either talking about it or suffering from mental health struggles,
but there's also just a larger ability to discuss. It's
becoming slowly less taboo.
Stephanie (15:41):
I did want to ask you specifically, though, about the
gap in mental wellness services and if there are any
kind of innovative companies or platforms that are trying to
fill those gaps, because in traditional health care, one of
the problems that so many health care systems are struggling
with is not having enough mental wellness providers or being
(16:03):
able to give access, easy access to consumers for those services.
So who's filling in the gaps?
Emilia (16:11):
Yeah, I mean, I think that's a great question because
as much as people are talking about it more and
there is more awareness building, there's still so many gaps
in services. And I think not just, you know, gaps
in services, but there's also many underserved communities that can
be addressed as well when that's just, you know, on
a discussion basis. So men in general still largely underserved
(16:33):
when it comes to mental health discussions. And I think
here there's some really interesting brand partnerships that we're seeing now.
This is, you know, one level that's not very, you know, clinical.
It's sort of the first step to, you know, talking
and opening up. But, you know, some things to be
aware of. So we've seen the company Bevel, which is
a black owned men's grooming brand partner with the digital
(16:55):
therapy platform Alchemy Alchemy, to give customers three months of
free digital therapy. This is really all about trying to
let black men feel like they can have a place
to open up and discuss their feelings. So again, not
necessarily therapy in a or it is therapy, but not
necessarily like clinical mental health services. I think another really
(17:19):
interesting example of this here, too, is Harry's grooming brand
made a $5 million donation April 20th, 22 to launch
Team Changing Minds. It's a network of mentors trained to
help young men who are experiencing mental health struggles. So again,
it's more of like a first line of defense to
see can we refer you to more help if you
need it? And I think more broadly, we're seeing the
(17:41):
interesting rise of the empath units and hospitals. So giving
a place for people to go if they are really struggling,
that's not the emergency room. So that's another really interesting
area that we're seeing arise. But yeah, it's really the
people who are seeing filling the gaps, so to speak,
are really these frontline services thinking, you know, how can
I triage all of the issues that are going on
(18:03):
for kids as well? There's a company called Maru for
Maru for Schools that's trying to help teachers be better
frontline triage. So trying to think, well, okay, can I
notice that this kid is having a pattern of poor
mental health and can I refer them to someone who
can help them in the way that they need? So
there's still a lot more needed on that actual treatment
(18:25):
side further on. But I think there's some very interesting
frontline examples that are arising here. And again, it's interesting
to see how they can also fill in some of
the gaps in services just for people who are experiencing
higher rates perhaps of mental health issues or aren't being
addressed by the the social media fueled conversations that I
mentioned earlier, I.
Stephanie (18:45):
Wanted to now touch upon one of your innovation platforms
that you cover as stylish, which is inclusivity. And to start,
I'd love to hear your perspective on, gosh, how are
consumers perception about inclusivity changing and what are they right now?
Emilia (19:03):
Yeah, I think this is a great question and even,
you know, starting to approach it, it feels it feels
so big, right? Like inclusivity is so many things and
we so frequently approach it from specific groups or specific identities.
But I think what we're seeing is that it's actually
much broader than that, and consumers are really leading the
shift here. So I mean, from a very basic level,
(19:25):
what we're seeing is consumers are much more likely to
expect and call out brands on their inclusivity, practices or
lack thereof. They want inclusivity to be something that is
less visualized, more an ethos that is made visible through
one's actions. You know, people are much more aware about
concepts like performative allyship, and they're don't want to see
that happening both with companies or with themselves, and they're
(19:47):
calling each other out on it as well. But I think, again,
really the most important thing to think here is that
we're not talking about inclusivity as something for specific groups
to be made more inclusive necessarily. Early, though, that is
definitely an issue that we are addressing and that individual
people are interested in. But when we're talking about inclusivity,
it's a much broader ethos and thinking about how can
(20:09):
we make a range of viewpoints available to people and
seen as equally valuable.
Stephanie (20:15):
Thank you for that and I'd love to hear some
examples of how brands are embracing inclusive inclusivity specifically, and
do consumers think they are successful?
Emilia (20:26):
Yeah, I think the best brands when it comes to
embracing inclusivity are, you know, reflecting the consumer approach. They're
treating it as a practice, not a target to hit.
So that really means weaving inclusion equity into their operations
from hiring processes through to how they engage with consumers
or patients. Obviously there's so many different perspectives to take here,
(20:49):
but I think from the angle of health, the inclusion
theme that we're seeing come up quite frequently is cultural competence,
which is a really interesting one. And again, touches on
so many different identities and viewpoints. So really thinking about
how health brands providers incorporate the impact of social determinants
of health and culturally moulded ways of discussing wellbeing, health
(21:11):
care into their practices. We just explored this topic in
a report called Culturally Competent Health Care touched on many
of these issues, and we found some really compelling companies
that are doing some really great work here, which was
very encouraging to see. So one of the most interesting
ones we came across is called Violet. They run upskilling
(21:31):
courses that discuss how racism appears in health care and
bias manifest and provider language. And with this, it's also
teaching doctors tips on how to provide affirming care for
people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. So really giving people practical,
tangible techniques to take to their own health care practice
(21:51):
and feed onto patients. But engaging with patients directly. We
also have companies like Spira Health and Safety Block, which
are focused on lengthening the health spans for patients of color.
They vet all their providers for cultural competence, which I
think is a really interesting idea that we could see
being fed throughout any provider directory. You know, it goes
(22:11):
beyond language, but actually, do you have experience in engaging
with people from a variety of cultural backgrounds? Are there
specific areas that you are particularly that you identify with yourself?
Could be a really fantastic way of thinking about this
as well. Bringing language into the equation. We have companies
like Su Vida Health, Zocalo, Health. They provide Latinx communities
with both Spanish language providers, but also services that are
(22:34):
intended to reflect cultural family roles. So thinking about how
caregiving can be brought into this conversation, which is a
really interesting area that we're watching more broadly, I think
also important to think about when we're thinking about inclusivity
and cultural competence. That's not just about race and ethnicity. Gender,
sexual orientation also play a really large role in expanding
(22:54):
the inclusive services that need to be provided to people,
especially as we think young people are more likely than
ever to identify as non-binary or LGBTQ+. Really good example
here is folks flex. They connect patients to LGBTQ+ friendly clinicians.
They provide inclusive community support, gender affirming medications such as
(23:18):
hormone therapy, and they're quite widespread. I mean, they operate
now in 42 states. They plan to expand nationwide. So
it's great to see that that is gaining traction. There's
also some interesting crossover here with other industries as well.
So as we were doing this culturally competent health care
report that I mentioned, we came across a really fantastic
example from this US neobank daylight and they offer financial
(23:41):
guidance for family planning, consultations for same sex and gender
queer couples. So helping them think about how they'll fund
processes such as IVF or surrogacy. So thinking about how
health care crosses over into all of these other industries
and how those can be made more inclusive as well.
Stephanie (23:56):
Wow. Thank you for that. I do find it interesting
that you know, consumers now are searching for providers by
kind of their cultural competency, like are they able to
work with people like me? You know, And that, I think,
is a really important thing that traditional health care needs
to pay attention to. Okay. I want to talk about
(24:19):
our next topic, which is convenience culture. So convenience is
a major trend that health care entities have been paying
attention to a bit of time now. And so I'd
love to probe your insight or your thoughts on that. Specifically,
how are consumer expectations around convenience changing right now?
Emilia (24:40):
Yeah, I think that's a really interesting question because so
much of the conversations that we have on convenience feel
like they've been based on apps and trying to make
things happen more quickly. And I think that's a very
interesting thing to think about with health care as well, right?
Like Zach Doc has sort of been the convenient thing
that we've. For health care for a long time. But
(25:00):
I think that we'll sort of see a pivot to
thinking about more blended ways of accessing health care and
how health care can really integrate with our everyday routines
and our everyday spaces. I look here to Amazon's recent
acquisition of one medical. You know, I think there is
potential future where we could see, you know, blending health
care and accessing that integrated with shopping, you know, and
(25:22):
thinking about how that's all merging together into one just
fabric of life. So company Fabric health is a really
good example here. So they host pop up preventative care services,
things like mammograms, blood tests at venues that are easily
accessible to people. And will they be spending a long
amount of time like laundromats? So I think we're going
to see more of this kind of embedded care be
(25:44):
something that terms convenience for people within health care. So
thinking less, I have to go to a particular space
and more you know, health care just fits into my
everyday life and routine. And of course, it's something I do.
And I think this also is like reflecting blended living
that we're having more broadly and something that's really been
catalyzed by the fact that many more people have been
(26:05):
allowed to work from home during the pandemic or even
just rethinking their routines more broadly. And, you know, this
takes us a little bit outside of health care, but
in a way that's still very relevant for convenience and
thinking about the future of work. In all of the
research that we've done over the past few years about work,
I think the takeaway that struck with stuck with us
the most is that people don't necessarily want to be
(26:28):
able to control where they work. It's less important than
being able to control when they work and because people
want to intersperse, you know, work their professional responsibilities with errands,
social meetings, caregiving, exercise, health care appointments doesn't necessarily mean,
you know, working less, just the ability to follow the
peaks and trowels of one's own productivity rather than following
(26:51):
an external schedule and trying to think of how do
I make the things that I need to do convenient
to me and my schedule?
Stephanie (26:57):
That's really interesting, especially the idea of convenience becoming something
that's just integrated in your daily routine rather than like,
Let's just do it faster, let's just do it quicker.
That's really, really illuminating. Thank you. Okay, I have one
more question. It's a big one. So if you could
pick one defining consumer trend that will fundamentally disrupt how
(27:20):
all industries operate and including health care, what would it
be and why?
Emilia (27:26):
I mean, it's so hard to say. I think one
particular trend because so many of these trends interweave onto
each other and piggyback off of each other. I think
the trend that's kind of underlines everything that we've discussed
today and really how all industries are going to operate
in the future is what we're calling deceleration. You know,
low key living phenomenon that I mentioned at the beginning
(27:47):
of our conversation. People want to slow down their routines,
limit stress, limit their environmental impacts, save money, prioritize enjoyable activities.
And it's all about thinking, you know, not necessarily how
can I do less, but how can I do what
I enjoy and do it in a smart way? You know,
self care skepticism is all about going back to the
idea of health and well-being basics, social wellness. It's all
(28:10):
about forgetting fancy therapies and intervention and prioritizing uplifting interactions.
Sustainability is all about prioritizing those really basic behaviors. So
it's thinking, how can I focus less on the really large,
you know, moonshot goals for myself, for the world that
needs to be accomplished and think, well, what action can
I take now in order to promote personal social planetary health?
(28:33):
So I think it's this focus on the basics that's
going to be kind of the disruption coming over the
next few years.
Stephanie (28:39):
Very cool. Amelia, is there anything else that you want
to share with us about health, wellness? Any specific trend
that maybe we didn't cover today? You know.
Emilia (28:49):
I think the only thing that I we've been noting
in health care that we're, you know, tracking is the
presence of AI in health care, particularly from the perspective
of how patients feel about it. We talked a little
bit about companies like Gaby and clearly bringing using AI
to speed up early disease detection. But I think it's
(29:09):
something that companies are going to have to grapple with
on a much broader level. Again, we were recently working
on this report Advancing MedTech, and what struck us as
we were doing it was this gap that we saw
between the funding implementation, consumer awareness and embrace of AI
within clinical settings. And we're particularly struck by some research
from South Korea that suggested that people really don't want
(29:31):
AI to play a part at all in their medical diagnosis.
And yet, you know, as soon as you dip your
toes into the potential of what it can do within
health to speed up analysis, get these diagnoses as to
patients faster, integrate new bodies of research, accelerate drug development.
It goes on and on. And you can see how
AI tools become extremely consequential for health care. So I
(29:52):
think it's going to be really interesting to see over
the next few years, next decade. How companies and health
care makes AI seem accessible and beneficial to patients. Because
right now I think that it clearly isn't there. And
there's a little bit of that digital mistrust. So making
it seem like something that is really worthwhile to people
(30:14):
and trustworthy is going to be really important for health
care to do. And I'm really interested to see how
that happens.
Stephanie (30:20):
Final question for you is if listeners want to learn
more about bias, where should they go?
Emilia (30:25):
Yeah, so you can go to Stylist. We have some
free resources available on our resources tab. If you're interested
in just dipping your toes into some of the insights
we have available. There's also plenty more information there where
you can access, schedule a call and schedule a demonstration
to see how our platform works. We are publishing a
lot on LinkedIn, doing LinkedIn lives for some of our
(30:48):
top key trends, so keep in touch with us on
social media as well. Awesome.
Stephanie (30:53):
Thank you.
Emilia (30:54):
Fantastic. Thank you so much.
Consumer #6 (30:56):
We'd like to give a big thank you to our
partner stylist in Amelia for being a guest on our
podcast today. Next month we will be talking about diversity,
equity and inclusion. If you would like a primer on
where AI efforts are taking the health care industry, you
can sign up for our downloadable empathy whitepaper linked in
the show notes.
Stephanie (31:18):
All right, you guys, thanks so much for tuning in.
If you like what you heard, please share rate and
review on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcasting platform. For
more content about simplifying health care, visit Inc.com. That's Inc.com.
This show is produced by Shift Forward Health, The Channel
for Change Makers. Subscribe to Shift Forward Help on your
(31:38):
favorite podcast app and you'll be subscribed to our entire
library of shows. See our full lineup at Shift Forward
Health one subscription all the podcasts you need and it's
all for free. We'll see you next time on what
Consumers want.
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