This is The Decade of Self-care. Equal access to effective, expert and convenient self-care for all could be right around the corner.

It’s a cold winter’s day in 2025. A mother in a rural village in my home town in Liguria, Italy, is struggling as her back pain has flared up again. When similar symptoms first developed a couple of years ago, she immediately booked an appointment with her doctor – if they couldn’t fit her in she’d go straight to the hospital, seeing no other option to stop the pain. However, thanks to information she’s picked up at her local pharmacy and been sent via mobile by her doctor, her knowledge about how to handle her everyday health has since improved. This has made her more confident about recognising her symptoms and knowing where to go for accurate sources of information, support and treatment. This time round, she drives the five minutes to her local pharmacy, explains her symptoms to her pharmacist and returns home with the right products to treat the pain effectively and quickly.

A young man in Berlin has been noticing some bleeding coming from his gums while he’s been brushing his teeth over the last couple of days. He isn’t sure of the seriousness and so books a video consultation with a healthcare professional that afternoon, during which the dental nurse identifies that the issue is build-up of plaque bacteria. He receives an e-prescription immediately on his mobile for some specialist toothpaste that is proven to reduce the build-up. He orders the product online and starts putting it to use, making sure he’s brushing twice a day, and the symptoms soon subside.

The picture I’m trying to paint here is a world where everyone – no matter their background, age or financial situation – has a good level of health literacy, easy access to healthcare products and resources and feels empowered and confident to take control of their everyday health. This is a world in which the true value of self-care is being realised, where valuable doctors’ time is being saved for when it’s truly needed as a result of people consulting trusted information online or at their local pharmacy instead of visiting a doctor or the hospital at the first sign of illness. This is a world where prevention is prioritised and our expert healthcare professionals are utilised as effectively as possible.

We have everything we need to achieve this – it is not dependent on any significant change to our healthcare ecosystem or a scientific breakthrough. Our ability to achieve this will, I believe, come down to increased collaboration and cross-sector partnerships, pursuing data-driven solutions and embracing technology that is already in existence and being utilised effectively by many countries around the world.

Take China for example, where telemedicine and digital healthcare have grown rapidly, leading to online medical appointments and check-ups via smartphone becoming the norm for much of the population. The Chinese telehealth market is set to reach $54.2 billion by 2025 and overtake the US market in 2023, according to UBS data. This growth has stemmed from a combination of private and public sector investment and prioritisation, supportive regulation and a strong uptake by the public.

This is something that I believe we can mirror closer to home. Take Germany and Italy, where the vast majority of the population are internet users, 94% and 83.7% respectively*. When it comes to consuming medical content digitally, 85% of the German population older than 16 are already doing so, which rises to 95% amongst 16 - 49 year olds**. With so many of us across the continent already connected, whether we live in a city centre or a remote village, now is the time to leverage digital and virtual services that can help us manage our health confidently, conveniently and effectively.

The challenge that lies ahead is to redefine self-care for the benefit of individuals and societies at large. What I believe matters most as we work towards this goal is placing people’s needs at the centre. We need to listen more, act fast and create solutions for consumers in today’s always-on and connected world.

I believe no single business or organisation can solve this challenge alone. It must be overcome through collaboration. A partnership ecosystem would enable a seamless transition between online and offline engagement, offering people comprehensive support from the moment they first seek information until they ultimately find the support which is right for them. One way that we are working towards this goal at GSK Consumer Healthcare is by developing a coalition of experts from across the industry who share our commitment to redefine self-care. We’re looking forward to talking about this more later in the year.

For many people, the pandemic has created a greater concern for their health, so let’s embrace this movement and work together to redefine self-care and build a future where people everywhere, from Liguria to Krakow and Madrid to Durban, are fully equipped to take control of their everyday health and live happier, healthier lives.

In the wake of International Self-Care Day, let’s keep this conversation going. What does self-care mean to you in the #DecadeOfSelfCare?

#InternationalSelfCareDay #ConsumerHealthcare #SelfCare #RedefineSelfCare??

*Source: We Are Social, Digital 2021 Italia (https://wearesocial.com/it/digital-2021-italia); We Are Social, Digital 2021 Deutschland (https://wearesocial.com/de/digital-2021-deutschland )

**Source: German Association for the Digital Economy (BVDW), OVK-REPORT FüR DIGITALEWERBUNG 2021/01 (https://www.ovk.de/app/uploads/2021/05/OVK-Online-Report_2021-02_final.pdf)