What if healthcare was as easy as buying something on Amazon?

The one-stop-shop for all health and wellbeing. It’s not if it will exist, but when

You pick up your phone and click on an app. Or, open a browser, and have immediate access to a comprehensive, organised, global marketplace filled with thousands of vetted health providers, products and solutions.

Doctors, psychologists, surgeons, physiotherapists, physiologists, dietitians, osteopaths, Chinese medicine practitioners, educators, and occupational therapists….. endless reviewed specialists and services to meet any concern or query you have. Categorised into every subspeciality, profession, and region.

Not to mention, the endless range of health and health-related products — digital health resources, apps, programs, devices, supplements, vitamins, creams, wound care and pharmaceuticals, manufacturers, prosthetics and support services.

Tagged terms, medical conditions, vetted information, organised forums, and even “customer service agents” help you navigate, learn, and direct you to what you need. With everything on the platform reliably reviewed from other verified users. And generated suggestions for similar or complementary services.

All of which can be delivered to you digitally or physically, on-demand.

And not just locally… if you’ve got a complex case or question, you can search and access any professional, product, or provider in the world.

You have a tailored profile — with preferences, conditions, and (if you choose) real-time health data provided by your devices. Apple watches, Google Health, and the ability to sync with any health tracking apps you may have. And if you want, you can even choose to integrate your personal medical records or send directly to the professionals you engage with a click of a button. Providing untapped insights and comprehensive histories like never before.

This new, integrated, and inclusive world puts patients and consumers in control. With everything at their fingertips. And collaborative datasets and individual insights are able to present options that provide the most efficient, effective personalised and collaborative health care for each individual.

You are in control. You design your experience

Along with the input of experienced, qualified health professionals of course. And help improve the systems by providing insights and advice to others through reviews. All inline with health care guidelines, research, and regulation.

One size doesn’t fit all. And this technological revolution finally enables us to appropriately acknowledge and act on it.

Welcome to the era of tailored healthcare.

Imagine…

You get a rash. You want to know what it is, how you can treat it, or who you should see. You type in rashes. Select some describing terms. Even take a snap to compare pictures. Immediately you find doctors both close to you and online available later that day specialising in skin. After browsing some reviews, you book a video consult for later that day. The doctor diagnoses the issue and suggests a few pharmaceutical creams and dressings, as well as providing options for more natural creams, a naturopath and a dietician if it is of interest. All of which you can view, compare, book and purchase on the marketplace platform after.

Scenario two

You’re diagnosed with a rare cancerous growth and told your only option is a highly invasive and risky surgery. You want a second opinion and to explore if there are any other options. There are limited professionals experienced with this condition in Australia, but now you can easily connect with professionals in India, Europe and America who are well versed in it, as well as find reviews from others with the same condition in a forum. You find out there are some alternative treatments using minor resection, intense physical therapy, medication and supported by dietary changes. The physical therapist is in the US, but thanks to digital health, you can have regular appointments in combination with working with local therapists and have the uncommon medications shipped directly to you. You have managed to avoid the original surgery, connected with a supportive community, and been a part of deciding your own treatment regime whilst accessing the best collaborative care options available to you.

Seems crazy right?

Well, I have news for you. It soon will be a reality. And it’s not as far away as you might think.

In fact it's already begun - check out Square Peg’s new portfolio member Doctor Anywhere in Singapore and SEA. Whilst in China “Super Apps” are have long been leading the charge.

Thanks to COVID, the industry which was held back for so long, is finally front and centre. With many of the capital, regulatory, resistance and trust barriers suddenly forcefully removed.

Healthcare has always been a limited resource, exclusive, and hard to access for many. It’s been a “Top-down” system, with doctors and institutions dictating the how, what, when, where, and why. But progress in technology and the internet has opened the floodgates and flipped this on it’s head.

“Patient-centered care” is the gold standard of practice. But this is very different to “Co-design” — actually involving the patient in the process.

The system’s limited resources, offerings and rigid standards built around physical location and wealth have unfortunately resulted in limited collaboration, access, and tailored care.

But things have changed

Many will no longer blindly follow the doctor’s instructions or lay out the cash for health insurers, who offer increasingly limited services and cover.

Nor do they have to.

People are taking health into their own hands, with easy access to information and service channels globally. The lens of acceptable health interventions, willingness for services to collaborate and integrative medicine continues to grow at a rapid rate. Whilst the “customer centred design” AND experience principles which have become the focal point of all other industries over the last decade, are finally becoming a must-have, and not just nice to have in health.

On the flip side, this technology and tailored approach will allow professionals and providers to scale their reach and services like never before. And on their terms.

The potential to reduce wasted time, money, tests and resources are enormous

The easy access to complete information and deeper insights into patients will enable professionals to direct patients to the right services and solutions quicker, saving lives, and improving health outcomes. Whilst the new systems provide both patients and professionals flexibility and comfortable alternatives to the rigid, sterile and harsh traditional healthcare settings.

Now a collaboration like this is a loonshot and will need the public and private sectors to play nice and work together. But the possibilities of such a comprehensive gateway — allowing everyone to easily access healthcare wherever they are, would truly change the world.

The key to rebuilding our currently crumbling communities into a more stable, successful, healthy, happy, productive society and economy, is to lay the foundations of good health.

That’s exactly what innovation in healthcare and the “Amazon for health” can do.

Now is the time of the health revolution. It’s not a matter of if this will exist, but when.

*DISCLAIMER — I am by no means saying that technology is the answer or will ever replace health professionals… but it sure will help scale care, improve systems and save lives.

?What do you think? Have other theories? Would love your thoughts, feedback and to hear from anyone interested in health innovation and the future of health.

?An Ex Medical student and professional patient, I was captivated by the bigger problems and wanted to create large scalable solutions, and systemic change, so defected to the world of innovation. I now help a community of emerging tech startups and scaleups at one of Australia’s leading Innovation Hubs and am obsessed with health innovation the future of health.

This was first published on Medium on October 1st 2020