Bridging the Gap between Health Care and Fitness...

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to take part in the Club Industry Show's first ever Wellness Works Series, as a member of the event's "panel of experts." The series was designed to offer practical solutions to help owner/operators better understand the changing Health Care landscape and the opportunities created for those in the business of wellness and prevention. The panel consisted of 14 individuals; a mix of PHDs, owner/operators and tech executives, like myself. 

In my opinion, the event went well, for the first shot at it and I very much look forward to participating again in the future (assuming that I'm invited back next year!) 

It was a learning experience, for me, as I've just recently started to dip my toes into the constantly evolving world of Health Care (relative to fitness/health and wellness,) but above all else, I had one major takeaway...

Nobody really knows what is going on, given the constantly evolving landscape, but there seemed to be a bunch of people trying to fit a round peg, into a square hole!

Again... I'm not an expert on Health Care, but I do have a finite understanding of the commercial fitness industry and did my best to look at the issues from a high level and try to provide value to the other panelists, as well as those in attendance. With the understanding, that nobody has fully grasped the concept of preventive medicine, I tried to take a super high-level approach:

For Health Care to really support the commercial Health and Wellness Industry, somebody (or some company) needs to create a process that delivers replicable positive outcomes and they need to prove it!

I see it as a race, between the direct-to-consumer side of the fitness industry and the commercial side... a race that the commercial industry is currently losing (in my opinion,) but really shouldn't be (or doesn't have to,) given the overwhelmingly large pool of prospective consumers (those who need and/or currently pay to get healthier) and producers (those who have the wherewithal to provide a service that can help people get healthier.) It's definitely moving quickly and someday soon, somebody is going to find a solution that helps both consumers and Health Care... but who's it going to be? 

Your guess is as good as mine, but it certainly is encouraging to see so many people working on what is surely a huge problem...

Who do you think will win the race?