Healthcare Economy

There is a marked change in the mindset of Employers and employer groups towards wellness. Wellness is now not only seen as a way to control absenteeism and boost productivity but also as a way to stay involved in the health and well being of all the employees. In past, wellness programs were directed towards specific people with certain characteristics like smoking or weight problems. Total population management and comprehensive well being are the new concepts being adopted now. By Total population management, what I mean is the effort to address the health and wellbeing of all the employees in a company. Comprehensive well being relates to complete continuum of health including physical, emotional and spiritual. Stress management and sleep disorder management are two examples. The number of employers attending the conference was a testament to the importance they are giving to the wellness of their employees. There are a few employers who have developed very sophisticated platforms to provide a self-service portal to the employees for managing their health. This could go a long way in adoption of a universal PHR also.

Incentive management is also seen as a powerful tool to encourage adult as well as younger population to get involved in managing their well being. Developed countries are facing a serious challenge towards the rise of sedentary based lifestyle conditions like obesity and type 2 diabetes in children and younger adults. Rise of technology based entertainment is being blamed for that to some extent. There are a few companies who have developed a few entertainment tools like wii that not only provide entertainment but also push people to be physically active. A few companies have developed activity monitor bands that look cool enough for younger adults to wear on their wrists and track the daily activity levels. Every 24 hours, the device displays a code that can be entered on a website to earn points and receive rewards at certain levels.

In the panel discussion, I talked about the proliferation of wellness industry in India. One of the largest Gym's in India called Talwalkers went public recently. The Red Herring prospectus for the investors talked about the state of wellness industry in India. Some of the things mentioned were facts like - In US almost 16% of people have some kind of gym membership whereas in India, it is less than 0.25%. This shows the state of organized physical wellness concepts in India (There is no dearth of spiritual wellness programs in India offered by various entities though.).  The rise of Indian middle class with more disposable income and awareness towards fitness will drive growth in wellness industry. India has the highest number of people with diabetes (almost 50 Million). Indian population is genetically disposed to develop heart and coronary diseases much earlier than the population in west. While the Medical facilities in India have improved a lot, the focus of improvement has been in handling the critical care. India has done tremendously well in building world class hospitals for managing critical care (Medical Tourism is a case in point). Somehow similar progress has not happened in addressing the chronic care for masses. The number of people with chronic conditions is on the rise. Awareness towards wellness and wellness programs can definitely help India manage this problem and avoid it to grow to a proportion where it becomes a huge burden on the society.