Wellbeing: the next disrupted industry by tech
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$2.2 Billion in investments in WellTech startups followed by a growing $4.2 Trillion Wellness business with a desire to merge with the healthcare industry in a new market.
Health, Wellness, or Wellbeing? In our society and our medical community, we have generally viewed health through the lens of physical health rather than mental and emotional health and defined good health mostly by the absence of illness or disability. In this frame, health is a state of being, whereas Wellness is the state of living a healthy lifestyle and wellbeing is a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing.
Many use the terms wellness and wellbeing interchangeably. At first glance, the words do not appear very different. But make no mistake; each word signifies a different concept. And though the two concepts are interrelated, it’s essential to understand the difference and how each constitutes a different aspect of peoples’ lives.
Wellbeing embraces more than just physical health. It takes into account the entire person, both body and mind, and not merely by the “absence of illness.” Its approach to “health” includes the presence of positive mental states, emotions, and moods, and identifies the state of happiness to achieve a healthy life. In some way, more close to the interpretation of health in Asia, where (for example), Chinese traditional medicine is all about creating wholeness and harmony within a person, allowing the mind/body/spirit to heal itself.
We could say that wellbeing, like wellness, does not cure. It creates the necessary conditions for perfect physical, mental and social health (happiness) by helping us deal with adversities, preserve soul & body, improve our lives, and trigger change behaviors for better balance, harmony, and social good.
In all of this, technology is already playing an important role (and will do so increasingly). If for a long time, we have been challenged to measure wellbeing, today thanks to the increasing production of personal data and the exponential innovation in technology, this is possible.