Innovations and risks shaping a future that thrives
In this post-pandemic, digital and AI accelerated era, the way we understand and experience health is changing rapidly. Health and wellness is becoming connected, holistic and personalised, which is transforming what, how and who businesses deliver products and services with and for.
From smart toilets assessing your health whilst you pee, to cancer detecting smartphone cameras at the touch of a button to having virtual GP appointments from the comfort of your own home — the future of health is now. There’s a lot to be optimistic about and at a time where the NHS is under huge pressure and strain, new innovative products and services are wholly welcome.
The intersection of health and tech
From our research and work with leading Healthcare providers and wellness brands, at Magnetic we observe four opportunity areas; better diagnostics, improved personalisation, holistic health and collaboration:
Data is king and it’s making a difference to diagnosis. With the vast amount of data available about individual and patient population health, AI algorithms are transforming datasets into insights that can speed up diagnosis.
Take Ada, one of the most downloaded and trusted medical apps. Magnetic worked with Ada to turn a successful AI app for doctors into a trusted self-diagnosis tool for everyone — and now it’s used in over 130 countries to speed up diagnosis of immunologic and rare diseases.
How we get diagnosed is changing and another example of this is self-testing kits. Since the global pandemic, the self-testing kit market has also erupted and continues to grow in 2023, due to high consumer demand for habitual testing. We observe an emergence of direct-to-consumer products offering at home tests, to name a few; Thriva offers general health insights from at home blood tests, Womco provides personalised nutrition for hormonal health, Awesome Health created Ava the first fertility-tracking device and Zoe helps you understand how nutrition affects your body.
These innovations are democratising diagnosis, simultaneously improving treatment by making it truly personalised. Whether it’s what you eat or how you exercise, future health is truly tailored to the individual — No longer a one size fits all approach.
So, with more information known about us, our bodies and behaviours, our understanding of health is changing. We now understand health to include mental health, gut health, brain health, financial health, sexual health — the list goes on. And with this broader understanding of what health is and what being healthy means, we observe new growth areas emerge. For example, Boots has partnered with Lemonaid Health to expand into primary care service offerings across a range of health areas; from menopause to migraines to sexual health, but in parallel also launched new product lines that compliment these new need areas.
Another example is Bupa, the leading private healthcare insurance provider. They just launched a game changing mental health proposition for businesses. Recognising that mental health and wellbeing is the number one workplace concern, we worked with Bupa to help them to change how people feel by supporting businesses with forward-thinking, industry leading care. Find out more about Bupa’s proposition in the press release.
So if future healthcare is holistic health, we believe this is presenting a need for more players to partner within the ecosystem. It is redefining who, where and how healthcare is being delivered and collaboration is key. We already observe changes at the highest levels, like the announcement of the European Health Data Space (EHDS) which focuses on health data exchange between patients and health professionals across EU member states. This will not only give European citizens access to the same healthcare as they would have in their home countries, when travelling or living abroad, but also will be used to improve research, resulting in improved diagnosis and treatments across Europe and also enable healthcare providers access to new markets.
We believe future healthcare is digital, personalised, interconnected and most importantly collaborative, which will help not just individuals, but whole societies to become healthier and happier.
Risk, responsibility and doing the right thing
Despite all of the amazing benefits and advantages innovation offers, there are also new challenges and risks that emerge. When it is about people’s health, there’s a lot at stake. If a technology makes a mistake, it could put someone’s life in danger, raising questions about liability and trust. It goes even beyond just an individual’s life. Technology if not managed properly can reinforce discriminatory biases and increase societal disparity.
For example, at University College London researchers had developed algorithms to diagnose liver disease but found that the algorithms had missed 44% of the cases among women, compared to 23% among men. The researchers noted that the disparity in the performance reflected inequalities in care, as the indicators used by the algorithm appear to be more effective indicators of disease in men. This shows how AI mirrors our human biases as humans determine what datasets, variables and rules the algorithms learn from to make predictions. This is one of many examples of how biases in AI can be a huge risk, accelerating societal disparity — not to mention the privacy and security concerns that surround AI.
The UCL example also shows us how AI can be a force for good, accelerating diagnosis and predicting disease within large patient populations. This could help prevent or treat conditions sooner, prolong lives and save healthcare systems significant costs. But, with this rapid advancement in diagnosis, it raises another important ethical question — When is information helpful and when does it become harmful? Google Lens recently announced a new feature where individuals can use their smartphone camera to scan their skin for conditions with immediate diagnosis results. Although we can get excited about how this democratises access to diagnosis, there’s lots of questions that need to be answered around how much information is useful for the patient to know and when it should be at the discretion of a professional. In addition, how does this change the role of the medical professional and when is too much reliability on technology a risk?
Like anything new, it’s crucial to maximise the benefits while monitoring any unintended harmful consequences to individuals and society. So, how can we find a balance between the need for innovation and ethical considerations to guarantee a future where we all can thrive? As industry leaders, it’s critical that we ask the tough questions and seek to design future health and wellness (system, care and providers) with integrity, transparency and inclusion at the heart.
Magnetic is a design and innovation company that helps design better futures. We’ve worked with global businesses to build capabilities, products, services and transform organisations. To find out more get in touch: hello@wearemagnetic.com or sign up to our monthly newsletter to keep up to date.
