Digital Therapeutics and the Future of Preventive Health

One way to think about the consumerization of healthcare is the shift away from “sickcare” and toward preventive health. A new generation of wearables and digital health apps are making it easier to monitor our health in real time. Soon we’ll have medical grade wearables that monitor our blood pressure, blood glucose levels and heart rate variability in real time. Consumer health apps are using AI and chatbots to help people optimize healthy behavior and suggest medical interventions as needed. Digital therapeutics companies (e.g. Akili, Pear and Click) are changing the paradigm for how we treat of chronic disease — from mental health to diabetes and smoking cessation. Simple, low cost genetic testing (e.g. 23andMe) and microbiome testing (e.g. Viome) are enabling new approaches to personalized nutrition. And the rise of telehealth / tele-medicine is enabling greater access to healthcare professionals for people in remote areas.