Leveraging Digital Technology to Improve Health Equity and Prevention: A Vital Opportunity

The pandemic and global economic pressures have only exacerbated a growing health, wellbeing and mental health crisis around the world with employees looking more and more to their employers for support. As HR/wellbeing leads and business owners, we have a duty to keep our employees healthy and happy.

Despite divided opinion on the use of wellbeing technology, I truly believe it can be a force for good as part of an overall fully integrated and holistic wellbeing strategy.

With digital tech, we now have a scalable vehicle to tackle health inequalities and promote prevention head on. Even with relatively low engagement, in medium to large workforces this will still be significant and will lead to an improvement in overall health outcomes and a more engaged and productive workforce overall.

Digital tech can provide access to personal health data, remote monitoring, and better communication between users and healthcare providers giving the user a sense of empowerment and more importantly control over their own health and wellbeing. From apps which can give your employee an instant eye test, allow them to self check their moles, to access to an online doctor, to a full nutrition and wellbeing programme, the speed of innovation that we are now seeing in the digital health sector is truly inspiring.

A case in point is the recent announcement by the Global brand and market leader Headspace. The digital mental health platform that currently touches the lives of over 100 million users are now adding on-demand behavioural health coaching, therapy and EAP services to its mindfulness and meditation app in the UK market. This demonstrates in technicolour the rapid development of flexible stepped care approaches to prevention rather than cure to fully support the corporate wellness agenda. That is some case study to watch with interest.

The recent Workplace Health Report 2023 by Champion Health cites that 98% of employees are motivated to make a positive change to their wellbeing suggesting that we have never been in a better position to deliver a range of well thought out wellbeing solutions that can truly resonate with the entire workforce.

Anni Hood of Well Intelligence sums up my thoughts when she said in a recent episode on her Well intel Daily podcast that "the future of wellbeing will be driven by tech but defined by people".

If you are considering adding a digital health and wellbeing solution to your current wellbeing offering, do reach out to us...

Dr Glenda Rivoallan

Zoas Digital Health Consultant