This article originally appeared on the BUILDER website, but has some relevance to remodelers as well.
Until recently, health rarely was a part of a home buyer’s search criteria, nor was it part of a builder’s design set. But now, as consumers, we have endless access to data and technology that put our health more in our control than ever, helping us understand the nuances of our health, along with how we can impact it.
And, every day this whole circulation of data and health gets more complicated. In a recent article from Modern Healthcare, Doug Beaudoin, vice chairman, US Life Sciences & Health Care leader, Deloitte LLP explores what healthcare will look like in 2040.
Beaudoin not only says that data will be hosted on more inter-operable and secure platforms, but the stakeholders will evolve to have different, more collaborative relationships.
He also talks about the emergence of information markets – ways that technology will be able to harvest consumer data, and then the consumer will have control over selling it to better serve themselves. The risk involved, and a risk that exists today, is maintaining the privacy and security of the information. This risk presented by the collaborations that feed it, has the potential to be solved in the future with new technologies, like blockchain.
Beaudoin actually envisions ways that health care innovators will be able to build virtual models of consumers to evaluate health solutions. His colleague, Sarah Thomas, the managing director at Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, points out that it’s clear that consumers are interested in getting care where they live, work, and play and avoiding care in traditional settings, including the home.
Deloitte recently published a consumer survey that is featured in this online article, Consumers are on board with virtual health options. The research shows that consumers have a strong interest in digital assistants for health-related purposes.
“I would predict that disruptors to this market would attract people to those services,” says Thomas. “Current stakeholders will be threatened by this trend, and I'd anticipate that they will react by offering products of their own and establishing partnerships with new type of partners.”
Still, challenges exist. Thomas points out that some of the main barriers are ways to secure payment, along with re-imagining relationships between patient and doctor that can be high quality. But, despite the challenges, Thomas believes that by 2040 these issues will be history and we'll see widespread adoption of technologies that maintain health and provide care outside of traditional settings.
But why would we be thinking about what healthcare means decades from now? Because, as Anthony Antolino, the chief commercial officer at Delos, puts it, health is more important than financial security. And, here, Antolino shares how Delos is offering solutions that will marry this future with housing today.
The Darwin system that Antolino shares is a data synthesizing technology that is part of “Where Tomorrow Lives,” the BUILDER KB Home ProjeKt 2019 concept house. This home, designed and engineered with cutting-edge technologies like the Darwin system, represent where housing is headed in the future and how it will have a major impact on health. KB Home worked with industry experts to create a well-balanced, affordable integrated smart system in the BUILDER KB Home ProjeKt that would promote better health and well-being, which took collaboration from dozens of technologies, in addition to Darwin.
The ProjeKt home is outfitted with Google Home, and the Deloitte research shows that digital assistants are popular among people who are interested in tracking their health. According to the research:
- 75% of consumers who use technology for health care purposes use digital assistants to receive reminders or alerts about medication, and 72% of this group use digital assistants to monitor health.
- For monitoring health, digital assistants are most popular among millennials in this group (81%), although 44% of seniors use them for this purpose.
- For receiving medication alerts, 74% of millennials who use technology for health care purposes use digital assistants, compared to 57% of seniors in this group.
The article also explores the use of artificial intelligence with the digital assistants.
In the home, for example, a person might say, “I’m in pain.” In response, the AI-enabled digital assistant could access the patient’s electronic health record and check the patient’s recent history, evaluate vital signs, or even scan for environmental factors. It might be able to connect the person to a family member or nurse.
The futuristic thinking integrated into the design, construction and engineering of this project will be on display at the home in February in Las Vegas. Follow the story line and register to see the home at www.builderonline.com/kbhomeprojekt.
