A million customers later, I’m more convinced than ever that people want high-quality, accessible, affordable, real-time care, and that the use-cases and need for that care will only increase.
We’ve seen incredible progress not just at Hims & Hers, but across the healthcare industry by leveraging technology, shifting the priority to the patient, and raising the standard for accessible and effective care. And we still have so much work to do. As I look at the year ahead, here are some predictions around what we’ll see evolve in our industry.
The “mobile internet” is now just the internet, ‘video conferences’ are now just ‘meetings’, and ‘online banking’ long ago became just ‘banking’. As technology has advanced, we increasingly expect higher quality, more convenient, and more affordable solutions across all areas of our lives.
Healthcare consumers need a similar transformation from an industry that wasn’t necessarily built to put the patient first. Waiting times to see providers are increasing for many people, and life expectancy in the U.S. continues to lag behind other nations. We need continued change in healthcare provision that's more consumer-focused, affordable, accessible, and trusted, and that will be led by digital-first providers.
As we see increased access to more personalized treatments and solutions, we’ll see the flexibility, convenience, and ultimately better health and wellness outcomes, redefine the healthcare landscape.
We’ve already seen AI have an impact on many industries, and while the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries are no exception, those impacts will be felt in a far more tangible way over 2024.
One of the smaller but still meaningful changes we should expect to see is AI supporting providers and patients in ways that allow them to save time on administrative work so that time can be spent on patient care and interaction. Charting, coding, and billing take up an enormous amount of resources but generally don’t raise the satisfaction of either patients or providers and AI can alleviate some of that burden.
We should also start seeing AI help with both diagnosis and treatments. In the past, an individual medical provider’s knowledge and opinion weren’t able to benefit from millions of data points, but that will increasingly be the case as technology is created to ensure that the medical advice being provided is also bolstered by a wider set of knowledge in real time.
This should also start creating a delta where providers and practices using these new tools can illustrate better outcomes for their patients and those same patients can start receiving better quality care.
Roughly 40 percent of American adults have obesity, and for generations many Americans considered overweight have been told that this represents a kind of individual failure.
Throughout 2023, we saw a much more well-rounded conversation surrounding the idea that for many individuals obesity is a condition that can and should be medically treated. While the conversation today disproportionately revolves around GLP-1s, it has also sparked important awareness of and demand for more effective programs and treatments to support safe, affordable, long-term weight management.
Weight loss is a nuanced challenge in our society and this is an exciting moment where we are seeing more accessible options for people to address their health in a meaningful way. And as an industry, we’re only at the beginning of being able to offer treatments where we know the outcomes, can guarantee availability and price, and help people build meaningful plans for addressing their weight.
Whether through expensive concierge services or personalized health care solutions, extremely high-income individuals have had access to a range of treatments that haven’t been as accessible to many Americans.
By responsibly leveraging medical data, the healthcare industry will have the ability to provide precise and personalized care to a much broader set of customers. Traditional medical approaches of the "trial and error" method when treating new patients no longer need to exist. We’ll see more treatment options based on the individual patient’s requirements, resulting in more effective treatment and better outcomes.
We need this shift across health and wellness. There are conditions impacting tens of millions of Americans that can be addressed, more quickly, and with more resources. Mental health, weight loss, and heart health are all areas where we can do better. Healthcare will be better by addressing each person individually, recognizing their specific traits and circumstances. I’m so excited to see the impact personalized healthcare will have as it reaches a much broader audience.
We’re in a transformation across healthcare and I couldn't be more excited to be at the forefront of this work. Everyone deserves access to treatment options that allow them to lead a healthier life and feel good. 2024 is going to be another busy year of innovation and exciting developments across clinical excellence, technology, and customer experiences, helping more people feel great through the power of better health.
