Getting Our Health Together: How to Connect Tech and Humanity

Some people are super health conscious, with their days driven by early-morning trips to the gym and kale smoothies. Others try their very best to avoid thinking about anything health-related at all, pushing thoughts of vegetables or long walks right out of their minds. Regardless of which camp you fall in, your overall health is important and your medical history is critical data. So why is it so difficult to get access to important health information for ourselves and those we love? Is the onus on us? Or is it due to a breakdown within the system? Either way, we clearly need systems and technology that support our health. Vijay Anand is the EVP of Engineering at Castlight Health, and he believes that technology combined with the human touch can increase everyone’s health.

“What we actually do is a combination of things. [We] certainly help you with content that helps you understand, why is that important? And what is it? But it's also about now using the power of high touch, right? This is essentially a key element of what our care guides do. On their single panel as they support our users, they actually have your whole health profile, but also the key recommendations and the gaps that you need to be closing.” 

Healthcare can feel like the ocean. It’s huge, important, overwhelming at times, and its waves can crash down on a person if they’re not careful. There’s a sea of healthcare information out there. Without some assistance, no one person can gather it all, make sense of it, figure out a plan, and then act accordingly. Fortunately, we do have help. There is technology that can guide us through the data and help us figure out what to do. Well-intentioned people can be a great support too. The key is getting technology and humanity working together toward the common goal of individual and community health. 

On this episode of IT Visionaries, Vijay explains the steps we can take to create a system that aggregates health data, personalizes it, and then helps engage people in making healthy decisions. He also shares how future innovation can help those who need services the most by identifying need and targeting care. Enjoy the episode!

Takeaways:

• Three Tech Steps Toward a Healthy System: The first step is aggregating data from a variety of sources concerning health providers and procedures. Secondly, users need the ability to have personalized health information that is driven by the data. The last step involves engaging users so that they can adjust their behaviors to act on information that supports their health. 
• Commonality Between Taxes and Healthcare: Making technological advances for people is not only about taking something that is incredibly complex and making it more simple. People need confidence that they can actually do something in order to even give it a try. The need for confidence to complete one’s taxes is similar to the confidence required to care for one’s health, as it is in many other important endeavors. The human touch can help support people’s confidence and encourage their perseverance.
• Tech/Health Innovations: Targeting services to people who really need it is something to look forward to and be motivated to do. Information will hopefully become less siloed and more holistic. A.I. advances will target/personalize health even more and then drive healthy behavior changes.

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