The Future of Health Care is Digital

Welcome to the Essity Newsletter –?a monthly article where we’ll turn the spotlight on a trending topic in health and well-being, and highlight our top stories from the month before. Don’t forget to subscribe so that you never miss the latest edition!?

Health care has long required a visit to the doctor’s office, marked by long waits between answers and a melting pot of manual paperwork. But today, with the acceleration and adoption of modern digital health technologies, that may not always be the case. For the provider or the patient, whether at home or the clinic, health tech continues to improve the overall patient journey with high-quality, accurate, and efficient care, as Forbes reported in a recent study . Here are three current trends in the digitalization of health care:?

Health care is self-care?

Also known as telehealth or telemedicine, remote care is here to stay. But following the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s advanced into much more than virtually assessing medical needs on a call, online, or in an app. There are also wearable devices like rings, wristbands, patches and sensors thempower patients to take a more active role in maintaining their health and wellness. These devices, such as Essity’s Essity’s TENA SmartCare Change Indicator? for incontinence management, prove to be useful for caregivers too. And as a care plan prescribed through an app, digital therapeutics , or DTx, offers another digital health solution that’s even more accessible ?for the world’s smartphone users. DTx supports patients in managing diseases, mental health, substance abuse and more. These self-monitoring and self-management options help patients embrace health care as a form of self-care.?

• Remote monitoring shows promise in significantly reducing hospitalizations by 87%, reducing deaths by 77%, and achieving substantial cost savings. ?

Digitalization as a disruptor?

Digital innovations in health care are equally beneficial for practitioners, too. This year, generative AI models , such as ChatGPT, have already aided in developing therapeutic ideas, analyzing medical data, and identifying patterns. Clinical decision support systems are also becoming increasingly widespread for greater prognosis accuracy, such as predicting survival rate or procedural success while reducing the rate of medication errors or unnecessary testing . Other digital tools can be used for physical assessment, such as Essity’s Cutimed Wound Navigator app for wound management.??

• “Our goal is to provide support to health care professionals in wound assessment and product selection while at the same time improving consistency of care,” says Ulrika Kolsrud , President Health and Medical at Essity.??

Virtual reality becoming a reality?

The power of health tech is also being directed at the development of digital twins (DT), immersive virtual reality (VR), and augmented and mixed reality (AR/MR). As a drug-free alternative for mental health and pain management, immersive VR will help patients safely process emotions and experiences in a simulated environment while gaining valuable insight and skills for application in daily life. AR/MR , such as smart glasses and virtual headsets, are revolutionizing health care with improved visualization and accuracy of patient anatomy, immersive and interactive simulations of complex medical procedures, and remote rehabilitation to name a few. But it’s not just virtual environments, there are virtual or simulated patients now too. These digital twins have been applied to precisely treat cardiovascular disease, plan surgeries according to individual anatomy, and develop accurate pharmaceuticals, among other uses.?

What does this all mean for the future of health care? It’s nuanced – not one or the other, traditional or digital, physical or virtual. It’s an integration of a data-driven and patient-centric approach with the goal of practitioners becoming more effective, efficient and productive at supporting health and well-being, and with the benefits for patient to enjoy quality health care that’s more accessible, individualized and precise. A 2023 BCG report on the Future of Digital Health makes it clear:?

• “Virtual care is certainly here to stay, but its future is rooted in how well it is paired with in-person care. With the peak of COVID-19 mayhem behind us, it is becoming clearer that telehealth and telemedicine cannot deliver well-rounded patient care in isolation. The coming year will reveal which companies can deliver the right combination of virtual and in-person care in a way that optimizes patient convenience, reduces clinician burnout, enhances clinician-patient engagement, and improves health outcomes,” said Ami Karnik, Director and Venture General Manager at BCG.?

?Learn more about Essity’s Digital Innovations here .?

September & October 2023 Highlights?

Essity Sustainability Week

At the start of October, we kicked off our Sustainability Week internally at Essity. Throughout this week, we held sessions and discussions together with invited colleagues and external experts to explore current sustainability activities and what we can do more of in the future, to ensure that our actions improve well-being while reducing our impact on the planet. Learn more about Sustainability at Essity here .

Gothenburg office lit up for Cancerfonden

Just as last year, every Wednesday afternoon throughout October, the Essity office in Gothenburg lit up pink to show support for Cancerfonden (the Swedish Cancer Foundation) and #breastcancer awareness month. Jeanette Sundin, Head of collection and communication at Cancerfonden said : "We are very happy that Essity is involved in the fight against cancer. By turning the Essity office pink during October, Essity is making the Cancer Foundation's Pink Ribbon campaign even more visible.”?

Greenwashing or green-hushing panel discussion in Brussels

We’re proud to have joined the European Commission, Inter IKEA Group, and BEUC (The European Consumer Organisation) in a panel discussion on “Greenwashing or green hushing: How to achieve the goals of the Green Deal.” The discussion in Brussels revolved around empowering the consumer in the green transition by sharing reliable, substantiated, and transparent claims. Read the full proposal here .

Greece Race for the Cure

Our employees and their family and friends in Greece joined the 15th Greece Race for the Cure? run , sponsored by Essity’s brand TENA and organised by the Hellenic Association of Women with Breast Cancer. TENA also participated in the event with our TENA Pink Power team. Once again, a big thank you to everyone who joined and helped us support the fight again breast cancer!?

Invitation to presentation of Essity’s Interim Report for the third quarter 2023?

Essity’s Interim Report for the third quarter will be published at approximately 07:00 CET on October 26, 2023. In conjunction with the publication, Essity’s President and CEO Magnus Groth will present and answer questions during a web presentation at 09:00, which also will be broadcasted here on LinkedIn and on X (formerly known as Twitter). Click here to watch the web presentation live or as replay.??